The vice presidential candidate isn't really an expert, he just plays one on TV.

His movie, 'Religulous,' is one-dimesional, while religion is varied and colorful.

The Supreme Court's makeup could change dramatically depending on whether McCain or Obama is elected.

What we are seeing is the birth of a type of worldwide judicial anarchy.

The debate between faith and atheism leaves too little room for figuring out why humans believe.

Universal healthcare may sound appealing, but deregulation and the free market would lead to better solutions.

Forget red and blue, the real battle is over the allegedly authentic and the allegedly inauthentic.

The couple's sons say those in power manufactured evidence and targeted their parents, making them the focus of the public's Cold War fear and anger.

Amend the Constitution: We need leaders who are well-traveled.

A pictorial look at the homeless and how they live.

Economistas and politicos may fear negativity more than fear itself, but cartoonists don't. Plenty of red-ink-stained wretches regard the financial system as a mere house of credit cards or some kind of consumer-confidence scheme. Mike Lester fumes about a tanked psych-onomy running on empty, while Signe Wilkinson roams further afield, contemplating the collapse of civilization. Steve Sack, always the cut-up, serves up choice subprime bull. (Call him an optimist ... he could've drawn and quartered a bear!) Man, if I just had a billion dollars for every hopelessly bleak cartoon.

Much of the support for the right-wing parties springs from a resentment of long-ruling political elites.

Politicians need to stop frightening us -- and stop giving stuff away.

Opponents of the parental notification initiative are trying to confuse voters by claiming that it is an antiabortion measure.

Vice presidency: An Op-Ed article Wednesday on doing away with the office of vice president indicated that President Lincoln's motive for choosing his second-term running mate, Andrew Johnson, was to carry Tennessee. In fact, his motive was to attract votes from the border states; Tennessee was contested between the Confederacy and the Union; it was not counted in the Union presidential election.

Do executions make us safer? San Quentin's former warden says no.

Will this year's election bring us the 'Obama effect'?

The founders messed up. We should do away with the office.

Congress should take note: We need government again.

The October 1910 blast killed 21; the investigation and trial that followed revealed 'a war of anarchy.'

A new investigation shows the Bush administration hired and fired for the most partisan of reasons.

Threats by Iran's president are not empty rhetoric; he means what he says, and we ignore him at our peril.

Amid the energy crisis, Democrats are losing the high ground on the environment to a GOP that is pushing oil drilling.

Democrats and Republicans must share the blame for the failure to pass a $700-billion bailout plan.

Applying numerical ratings to books does nothing to help kids read better.

Conservatives play a dangerous game in attacking the media for bias

What Rush Limbaugh wants, he gets, when it comes to McCain's campaign.

It's possible that a third-party spoiler may tip the election.

Two former national security advisors look at how the world has changed.

Yes, make L.A.'s Griffith Park a historic-cultural monument. But also give Angelenos more green spaces.

As one's mortality swings into view, be thankful for life -- and whiskey.

Once again, we're treated to not just a campaign but a collision of myths.

Editorial cartoonists on the Wall Street meltdown.

The candidate has used his 'country-first' rhetoric before. But will the Great Man act turn into a self-parody?

No matter what, it's going to be ugly. So let's just save the $700 billion.

With a few changes in format, politics-as-usual could become must-see TV.

McCain's past collides with the present Wall Street debacle.

His Las Vegas trial is commanding less attention. Does that means we're over him? Who knows.

Three options for improving the presidential debate format.

She is as much a product of the oil industry as the current president and his vice president.

Despite the current financial crisis, there are many reasons to trust that the U.S. will, as always, rebound.

His current trial in Las Vegas brings out the worst in journalism.

A Times Q&A with Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

America's journalists insist that anyone who doesn't favor Obama is a racist. It's not only wrong, it's the Democrats who have the racism problem.

Although publicly he trash-talks the body, he has repeatedly used it to help gain legitimacy for his foreign policy moves.

The Constitution, and the War Powers Act of 1973, limit a president's ability to initiate conflict. Some wish to change that.

Can I get back to you on that?

America's markets would be better off if we focused on: What does the company produce? What is its market? And how well is it run?

Stories behind the November ballot initiatives that you won't find in an official voter guide.

Major powers have to be wary lest friendly nations lead them down a slippery slope to conflict.

While the league parties on, some of its players are secretly hurting.

Economic downturns? He's seen more than a few.

Editorial cartoonists explore the campaign's less human side.

Marriage as a human institution is constantly evolving. But in all societies, marriage shapes the rights and obligations of parenthood.

Jewish grandkids get an earful in Florida as they try to woo relatives toward Obama.

Several suggestions have been made to address the problem of the two-thirds vote requirement to pass a budget. But perhaps voters prefer a dysfunctional Legislature?

The rail agency's spokeswoman quickly -- too quickly, in her bosses' eyes -- admitted liability in last week's deadly accident. Now she's out of work.

It's been a quick slide from economic superpower to economic basket case.

Beginning in the mid-1800s, the banking family pumped up the economy of the city and the state -- and more than once.

A startling confession again proves their guilt. Now it's time for their left-wing defenders to acknowledge it.

It's too simplistic to blame accidents on human error alone. Design, management and oversight need to be improved.

Sarah Palin has become integral to the GOP candidate's hopes of winning the presidency.

The Democrat's latest attack on John McCain takes poor aim at his age and knowledge of technology.

'The Grapes of Wrath' continues to resonate and may even be more relevant today than at any time since it first appeared nearly 70 years ago.

Over soccer, the two countries' leaders begin to work on the future instead of getting mired in the past.

It says it's about parental notification, but it's really about attacking legalized abortion.

The U.S. government's method, established in 1964, is badly outdated and leads to an inaccurate picture of who is, and is not, poor in America.

Conservatives claim to hate victimhood, but the Republican Party encourages its base to feel aggrieved at the hands of the 'elites.'

The great American writer found nothing heroic in hunting the gentle creatures. Rather, he saw their killing as a great tragedy.

From a Chevy's trunk to a home in Orange County: It's still the American dream.

European democracies must decide: remain dependent on U.S. protection or develop the capacity to defend Europe themselves.

Once, no one dreamed of giving their children names like Brooklyn or Rhiannon or Darcy.

The White House is trying to rush through a change that will weaken the statute's most effective conservation tool.

More editorial cartoons focusing on the GOP vice presidential pick.

Western airstrikes target terrorists, but innocents are caught in the crossfire.

No need to skirt the issue -- some modern-day female politicians are hot.

Is authoritarian capitalism a stable, durable model? That is among the greatest questions of our time.

Should he be remembered as a tyrant or as an economic reformer who turned Chile into a global success; and to what extent did the U.S. government bring about his dictatorship?

Physical attractiveness is a plus in the job market, so cosmetic surgery is an investment -- in yourself.

Senators: A Sunday Opinion caption on Sept. 7 said that only six sitting or former U.S. senators have been nominated to run for president since Lyndon Johnson, and that none was elected. Richard Nixon, the 37th president, served as a U.S. senator from California from 1950-52.

Patt Morrison has the day off.

In a recent poll, one in five agreed that states have the right to peacefully secede from the Union.

The City Council's sell-off of visual space now turns to the Convention Center.

The McCain campaign is insisting on deference in the questioning of the vice presidential candidate.

Union leader: A Sept. 8 Op-Ed article on reforming the Service Employees International Union misstated the affiliation of Alejandro Stephens. He was never the president of Local 721. He is the former president of Local 660.

By agreeing to such a vote, he could win back the political capital he needs for his reforms.

The Democratic ticket finds itself trapped by a McCain-Palin double-team.

'Think Ivy League," pleaded Mrs. Anderson, my English teacher. "Ivy League? What is that?" I remember thinking.

Bringing convenience, efficiency and safety to mass transit.

The union's president vows his organization will represent organized labor's ethical gold standard.

We care more about where candidates came from than what they've accomplished.

Officials are perverting the law in a desperate attempt to increase black enrollment.

Not since LBJ has a sitting or former senator been elected president. Obama or McCain will break the string.

Deserving African American students often weren't able to win admission under the old process.

Everyone knows the tales that stick are the most sensational.

Editorial cartoonists on the hockey mom turned would-be VP.

Dozens of studies over 35 years have found that rewarding people for learning backfires.

My parents have been calling me while I've been at the conventions for the last two weeks, asking if I have any "news." These people clearly don't read my columns like they say they do.

If The Times had its way, millions of Americans would be out of work thanks to unfair foreign competition.

Middle class: An Op-Ed article Sept. 1 said the "top 1% of Americans -- 300,000 -- earn as much as the bottom 150 million combined." It is the top 0.1%.

Sarah Palin shares nothing but a chromosome with Hillary Clinton. She is Phyllis Schlafly, only younger.

The Golden State's delegates find themselves the Rodney Dangerfields of the Republican National Convention.

For years she has courted the Alaska Independence Party, which wants to split the state from the U.S.

The Sandinista president has gone too far in prosecuting 83-year-old poet Ernesto Cardenal.

She, her husband and daughter got to make private decisions privately. But her public views would deny that same right to other Americans.

Have you flown lately? If so, you probably agree it's time to rethink how we get together.

She's not qualified to be president, and in picking her, McCain shows that he has little respect for the presidency.

John McCain's running mate has been met with enthusiasm -- and donations -- from the conservative wing of the Republican Party.

A decent society would respect people's moral commitments.

In the last 25 years, what is good for America and what is good for much of corporate America have gotten way out of sync.

The American experience leaves the United States and its citizens unprepared to confront the global rise of ethnic nationalism and secessionism.

Fellow politician and Vietnam vet Bob Kerrey, who supports Barack Obama, says John McCain's military experience is not enough by itself to qualify him to be president.

America's educational system is falling behind. We must find innovative leaders with a vision who can prepare children for the future they deserve.

Barack Obama's candidacy is one of many signs that the U.S. has turned a page.

The principle was intended to prevent another Cambodia or Rwanda; it cannot be used to justify Moscow's invasion of Georgia.

From Francis Gary Powers to Natan Sharansky, the East German lawyer, who died Aug. 21, oversaw prisoner exchanges between Western and Soviet bloc states during the Cold War.

Of all the big cities in the United States, Los Angeles is the one where the mattress and furniture recyclers, the bottle and can collectors, the food vendors and other street hawkers are most ubiquitous.

In the end, it's family, not a mortgage, that matters most.

Party rules mean that young delegates have their say at the Democratic convention.

Joseph Biden: Jonah Goldberg's column Tuesday said Barack Obama was age 12 when Biden was first elected to the Senate in 1972. Obama was 11.

When diplomacy isn't enough and force is too risky, a policy of conservative internationalism is best.

Democrats need to temper their expectations; their candidate inspires, but there is plenty of hard work ahead.

Retired cops often guard film and TV shoots. Chief Bratton wants to do away with that and use only active-duty officers.

No-fly lists and photo IDs are supposed to help protect the flying public from terrorists. Except that they don't work.

At the conventions, they'll try to stir up red-blue divisions. But most Americans hold un-partisan views.

College presidents are wrong. Data clearly show the damage done by letting 18- to 20 year-olds drink.

Abortion is again being used as a wedge issue to win votes for the GOP.

Prime Minister Maliki's Shiite-dominated government risks security gains by taking on U.S.-backed Sunni forces.

Jonathan Crutchley discovers how intolerant the gay community can be.

His choice of Biden for the ticket reveals that his campaign rhetoric is just empty words.

Why are Americans so gloomy? It may be all about the yoked dog and 'learned helplessness.'

We get what we wish for in the utterly predictable political conventions.

She may grump about high gas prices, but they've reunited mother and son -- on two wheels.

Schools need to look beyond income in deciding what students and families can really afford.

Barack Obama may be courting defeat by targeting more electoral votes than are needed to claim the presidency.

Forget the promises; there's only so much a president can achieve.

From government jobs to CEO pay, it's all about who you know.

Stem cells, evolution, climate change -- some talking points for the candidates.

For the intellectually disabled and their families, it's just as bad as the "N"-word.

The U.S. tallies all medals; many other nations count only gold.

The top three medal-winning countries in Beijing as of late Thursday, and how they would score using a 1908 British system.

Pop music: In Meghan Daum's column Saturday on lip-syncing at the Olympics, the name of a movie musical was misspelled. It is "Mamma Mia!" not "Mama Mia!"

The traditional party gatherings could be crafted in a computer.

It's 1981 again, and the Russians are once again the bad guys.

Recent deadly attacks in Afghanistan and elsewhere are signs of trouble.

No matter what budget Sacramento comes up with, California voters will probably increase the deficit in 10 weeks.

The West has pushed back against Moscow's repeated attempts to establish closer ties.

The bureau's refusal to confirm or deny a criminal probe of the city attorney is pointless.

The governor's second thoughts about budget votes shouldn't distract him from redistricting.