Oct. 22, 2005

One thing is clear about special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald’s investigation of White House officials: the Iraq war lies and cover-up are vast and ugly. Bush administration officials have blood on their hands. And so do The New York Times and its reporter Judith Miller.

Throughout much of the United States, home heating in winter is as much a necessity as food, clothing and a roof over one’s head. With oil and natural gas prices rising steadily in recent years, thousands of families have faced cruel choices as the temperature drops — whether to heat their homes or buy food, medicine or gas to get to work.

The joys of Citgo; Put on marching shoes; Gains for liberties; Big Oil’s grip is big news; Miers is not ‘neutral’; Pogo rides again; Humor too subtle?

President Bush acknowledged earlier this month that his main domestic goal of “saving” Social Security was going nowhere. Regarding his privatization scheme, he said, “There seems to be a diminished appetite in the short term, but I’m going to remind people that there are long-term issues that we must solve.”

When actor-turned-politician Ronald Reagan was elected to the presidency in 1980, a number of pundits wondered whether cue cards would have a prominent place in the White House.

The religious right is increasing efforts to force its dogmatic beliefs onto American society. Its agenda includes efforts in many states to force the teaching of religion in public schools. Its adherents argue that evolution is not a discipline of science but “only a theory,” and that “intelligent design” (formerly “creationism”) should have an equal place in public education.

New Lanark is one of the big tourist attractions in the south of Scotland. Designated a world heritage site by the UN, it is an almost perfectly preserved model industrial village run by Robert Owen 200 years ago. It has a large and elegant school building, an “Institute for the Formation of Character,” workers’ houses and the original mills. An exhibition and theme ride puts across some of the basic facts about Owen, the pioneer of socialism, trade unionism and the cooperative movement.

With “Good Night, and Good Luck,” George Clooney proves once and for all he’s more than just a pretty face. With this film, his second as director, he shows himself to be smart, courageous, politically savvy — and a hell of a storyteller.

North Country’ inspired by women miners; New Orleans public libraries closed indefinitely

In announcing the 2005 Nobel Prize for Literature, Horace Engdahl, chairman of the Swedish Academy, said that British playwright Harold Pinter was an artist “who in his plays uncovers the precipice under everyday prattle and forces entry into oppression’s closed rooms.”