Do you feel helpless and betrayed? Is your breathing rapid and shallow, your pulse racing? Do you feel angry, confused, hurt? Have you felt this way ever since you heard that Oprah Winfrey will be ending her talk show in September 2011?

President Obama's visit to Japan drew criticism from the American right because he bowed to Emperor Akihito. Most of the criticism hinged on whether it's inappropriate for an American head of state to bow to another head of state. Some critics were nuanced enough to note that mutual bows are appropriate greetings in Japan, but suggested that Obama's bow was inappropriately deep and therefore servile.

Now hold your horses, you snarky, lefty, NPR-listening, New York Times-subscribing readers. I haven't jumped ship to declare Sarah Palin herself "great." I'm from California; I am not a creationist; I am not pro-life; I have never shot a moose.

I've done it lots of times. You've probably done it as well. Maybe you've even done it to me. People rarely own up to it, but it happens all the time. That's why it's the New Oxford American Dictionary word of the year: "unfriend."

The admonition not to rush to judgment or jump to conclusions might sound prudent enough, perhaps even statesmanlike when uttered by the president, as long it's borne in mind that such advice is itself a judgment that is more than halfway to a conclusion. What it plainly implies in the present case is that the actions of Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan should not be assumed in any meaningful way to be related to his Islamic faith.

'Rome had in very truth become the city where everything was for sale," said Edith Hamilton in her classic The Roman Way.

The most conspicuous effect you will see from President Obama's health-care overhaul won't be at your doctor's office or the hospital. It will be at your local Burger King.

Contrary to a popular fallacy that science and religion are at odds with each other, it's quite the opposite.

Enough is enough. It's time to acknowledge the true causes of violence among Chicago Public Schools students and then do something about it.

Most of you observed Veterans Day on Wednesday with tributes to those who served our country in the military, especially those who died doing it.

Lenin once defined a revolutionary situation as one that occurred when the rulers could not go on in the traditional way and the ruled did not wish to continue in that old way. Friedrich Engels was more metaphorical, saying that revolution was the midwife that delivered a new life out of an older body. Both images come to mind in remembering the revolutions of 1989, which humbled a ruling system that believed itself to be based on the historical wisdom of Lenin and, indeed, of Engels.

When Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan started shooting up the Soldier Readiness Processing Center at Fort Hood, Pfc. Marquest Smith dove under a desk. The Associated Press reported that "he lay low for several minutes, waiting for the shooter to run out of ammunition and wishing he, too, had a gun."

I realize that we are in a downsizing economy in Chicago, but the shabby donated tree that is being installed at Daley Plaza makes this wanna-be Olympic host city look like a joke. They have already said the ornaments would be too heavy for the tree; but while walking by recently, I noticed that the lights also may be too heavy.

The unemployment rate hit 10.2 percent last week, the highest since 1983. Back then, the economy quickly recovered over the next year, with 8 percent growth. And by 1984, the economy was roaring.

Seven messages and counting on my voice mail from different San Francisco area reporters, all wanting to know the Muslim community's reaction to the heinous killings by Nidal Malik Hasan. All wanted to know what had driven a 39-year-old Muslim to go on a killing rampage, murdering 13 people in Fort Hood, Texas.

Ladies and gentlemen, friends and neighbors, step on up and see the wonders of a magic elixir that will ease those aching bones and warm the aging heart.

Last week's news stories gave Chicago taxpayers a fright. In the middle of an economic downturn and a drop in housing prices, four out of five homeowners would see higher property taxes in their new bills. The highest increases, in West Garfield Park, would average more than 45 percent. Older residents might not be able to pay their tax bills.

The most idiotic thing being said about America's involvement in Afghanistan is that the best way to protect the 68,000 U.S. troops there now is by putting an additional 40,000 in harm's way.

The administration's biggest economic mistake so far was to badly underestimate last January how bad the employment situation would become by fall. As a result, it low-balled the stimulus -- settling for a plan that, while avoiding even worse job losses, didn't go nearly far enough.

It has come to this: Desperate bankers are appearing in churches to make the claim that Jesus would have had no problem with million-dollar bonuses and subprime mortgage-backed securities.

It is heartening that we finally have a president who honors those killed in the two wars that our last president lied us into.

Wow, Don Terry's column touched me and made me angry. Even with a recorded video, the police still found a way to ruin the life of an innocent teen, Eugene Bailey, and there is no telling how long this will affect him and his family. There are many times when I wonder if the police department has ever heard of the words "common sense"?

Sometimes a case is so open-and-shut that you don’t know if it should be open or closed.

This week, the first round of tour dates for Lilith Fair 2010 -- a revival of the late '90s women's music festival -- was announced, prompting those of us who were the target demo the first time to go, "Aw, cool." And then, "Wait, but is it?"

The first time I read the Onion report, "Obama's Declaration Of Swine Flu Emergency Prompts Pro-Swine-Flu Republican Response," I laughed (because it's darn funny), but then I cried -- because it's just not too far from the truth. Whatever Obama does, is, by GOP definition, bad. Which means satire like the Onion's cuts too close to the bone:

A new study, according to the New York Times, concludes that Hispanic "children fall behind their peers in mental development by the time they reach grade school, and the gap tends to widen as they get older. . . . The drop-off in the cognitive scores of Hispanic toddlers, especially those from Mexican backgrounds, was steeper than for other [low-income] groups and could not be explained by economic status alone. ... From 24 to 36 months, the Hispanic children fell about six months behind their white peers on measures like word comprehension, more complex speech and working with their mothers on simple tasks."

Sometimes a case is so open-and-shut that you don't know if it should be open or closed.

Thank you for the story about Kipling Elementary, a low- income Chicago public school that outranked many higher-income suburban schools, apparently by providing a well-rounded, challenging curriculum.

Is "bud" the new "boy"? As a black man -- even in a "post-racial America," where a black man now occupies the White House -- I still wonder.

The recently revived idea of creating a government-run health plan to compete with private insurers may reinforce the impression that President Obama and his allies in Congress are standing tall against those corporate fat cats who delight in denying lifesaving care to children and old ladies. But Obama and the insurers still see eye to eye on a central element of his health-care agenda: the requirement that every American obtain medical coverage.

It takes a leap of faith to build a skyscraper -- faith that the future will be brighter and that our economy will deliver the jobs to fill all those floors. That's why the 1920s skyscraper boom in Chicago ended with the "Black Tuesday" crash on Wall Street 80 years ago this week. We're not building many skyscrapers these days either.

You've seen those commercials in which an airline pilot, or surgeon or nuclear engineer is giving expert advice only to acknowledge eventually to this nonplussed listeners that while he is not actually a fill-in-the-blank, he did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night. Do you ever get the feeling that we are getting Holiday Inn Express government?

Let's talk. Let's really talk about this problem of youth violence that is tearing us -- not just certain families and classrooms, but all of us -- apart.

I never thought I would agree with Dick Cheney, but President Obama is "dithering" about revving up the boots on the ground in Afghanistan. I must admit I voted for Obama because I believed that a fundamental change in our Middle East policy was imperative. I am disenchanted with him for "dithering" instead of acting swiftly and decisively to bring about an end to our presence in Afghanistan.