Commentary, editorials and opinion, opinions

Why would anybody be surprised -- and some in Congress apparently are -- that the government's "Cash for Clunkers" program is wildly successful?

After the rumors and conspiracy theories, and the periodic Pentagon reviews of his disappearance, the mystery of Navy pilot Scott Speicher may have been as simple as nomadic Bedouins complying with the Islamic requirement that a body be buried as soon as possible after death.

The sense of outrage that permeated nearly every announcement of obscene compensation for Wall Street's profligate managers and traders a year ago seems to have faded with the public's anticipation that the worst of the economic crisis is over.

Even before I had adjusted to the altitude of the world's highest capital, my hosts and friends, members of a generations-old Bolivian family, hauled me off to a parade. Nearly 1 million people from every South American country and tourists from elsewhere flooded the streets and sidewalks of the central city.

Here's Senator Jim DeMint, R-S.C., speaking recently in opposition to government involvement in health care reform: "We've never seen the government operate a plan of any kind effectively..."

California is one of just three states that require supermajority votes to enact state budgets, and while that constitutional provision has been in effect for nearly eight decades, only in the past quarter-century has it become a major political impediment.

The worst recession since the Great Depression is nearing an end. Statistically, it may already be over.

Gross Domestic Product fell only 1 percent in the second quarter, a half point better than expected. That made four straight quarters of contraction, the first time that's happened since records began being kept after World War II.

The National Safety Council advocates a total ban on all cell-phone use while driving. Further, a study by the Harvard Center for Risk Analysis estimated that 6 percent of vehicle crashes, causing 2,600 deaths and 12,000 serious injuries a year, are attributable to cell-phone use.

The international economic recession began in banking and finance but has now spread far beyond. The production of goods as well as services has been very hard hit in the long established advanced industrial economies of Europe, North America and elsewhere, though China continues to drive growth in Asia.

August is the silly season in Washington. The Larry Craig airport-men's-room story broke in August. So did the story about a rabbit attacking President Jimmy Carter's rowboat. Certain stories in the summer doldrums inspire inordinate attention.