Nowadays, instead of doodling with pen and paper, with Twitter you can doodle with your words.

Virginia’s vibrant political culture, which once listed right and now writes lists, has discovered a central list of a few dozen flagrant factoids.

Stabilizing Afghanistan is a more complex task for President Obama than Iraq was for George Bush. 

There’s at least one scientist who claims that a derivation of a very common virus somehow mutates in an unlucky chunk of the population.

When the Charles Manson look-alike ventured into the store where I was doing a book signing, I wasn’t surprised. It was fate, I knew it.

That girls (and parents) succumb to marketing to such a degree that they prefer dolls that look like hookers is to me somewhat disillusioning.

The next two months could be a dangerous time for the nation’s security.

I can barely get my head around the latest burst-economic-bubble drama, since I’m still reeling from the tech-boom-gone-bust of eight years ago.

When politics is at its most divided, testy or negative, people are more open to demanding change.

Politics has left a bitter taste, but I see a groundswell of candidates who are trying to instill a modicum of respect in the political process. I feel encouraged.

The Albemarle County Natural Heritage Committee recently told the Board of Supervisors that its success was endangered by a lack of support.

Two issues will dominate November’s presidential election: energy costs and lagging U.S. economy, and the continuing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Opinion polls show that John McCain is stronger on foreign policy than Barack Obama, but Obama leads McCain on dealing with the economy.

Many of us who grew up in black communities in the 1940s, ’50s and ’60s now constantly have to look over our shoulders when visiting.

Ironically, President Bush sought to don the Jefferson mantle by claiming, “We honor Jefferson’s legacy by aiding the rise of liberty in lands that do not know the blessings of freedom. ...” But no president before George Bush tried to make aggressive promotion of democracy the overarching strategy of U.S. foreign policy. And Jefferson “abhorred war,” and only reluctantly countenanced war in self-defense. He would turn over in his grave to hear that his beloved country had justified “a war of choice” and occupation in the name of pushing democracy.

A fundamental question for U.S. presidents and policymakers is this: Under what circumstances is the United States justified in going beyond economic sanctions and propaganda to the use of armed force to oust a dictatorship? The answer should be obvious: Only when a vital U.S. interest is at stake in that country.

There is a perception that any combination of options other than the current plan can be strung together to create an approvable plan. That is not the case. Any plan would have to go through the same process we just went through, and there is no guarantee that it would ever be approved (as in the Buck Mountain example). Also, it is unlikely that another plan would emerge that would obtain the community support that the current plan has. 

Two weeks ago Scotland’s top political leader, Alex Salmond, told an audience at the University of Virginia that Scotland deserves to be independent from Great Britain. He cited Thomas Jefferson’s principle of self-government as the basis of his claim that Scotland should “become its own country”

For as long as I can remember, my now 17-year-old son has aspired to a career in politics. I have fretted often about his career choice, having worked in politics on Capitol Hill back in the ’80s, before the tone there turned irrevocably hostile.

Any candidate, Democratic or Republican, who wins the presidential elections will face a great challenge of understanding Iran.

He’s not the first in this campaign to want a fresh start. When she launched her presidential bid in January 2007, Hillary Clinton called herself “the most famous person you really don’t know.” She wasn’t hard as nails. To the contrary, she’s tough enough – and warm and caring besides. She’s still fighting the image battle.

I for one am most grateful that one particular candidate no longer holds the prospect of breaking bread at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue for the next four to eight years: Dennis Kucinich. And it’s nothing personal against him. Really it’s not.

It seems that for this generation of kids, the child-rearing arms race that started some two decades ago is reaching its crescendo, and maybe, just maybe, these kids are getting wise and just saying no: a sort of declaration of detente in a war launched by my generation of type-A overachievers upon the unsuspecting generations to come.

I suspect that there are plenty of you out there who, like me, have already fallen off the New Year’s diet bandwagon, so I am dedicating this column to my fellow comrades-in-arms (make that arms full of sweets and bread products!).

I have long been outspoken about the politics of kids’ sports, and frequently downright disgusted at the backhanded lessons our children continually learn from athletics. Here is one of my favorite sporting lessons: “Sports are more important than anything in your life, including family vacations or holidays.“ Then there’s: “Win at all costs.“

Soon we will open our home to two French foreign exchange students. This is an undertaking that we did not decide upon lightly.

POLITICAL NOTEBOOK So who votes in party primaries these days- Not a whole lot of ordinary Virginians who don’t pay particular attention to partisan hues of reds or blues.

In the season of the great immigration debate, I left the nation’s capital to see what the fuss was about. What do people in the rural heart of Virginia’s 5th congressional district think about immigration-