If you're Governor Easley thinking this week about rampaging Republicans and stubborn shortfalls and turkey to be eaten and football to be watched -- and amidst all that about whether one Ernest Basden should be put to death -- you might at some point find yourself reflecting on what a trio of federal judges had to say.

Family business, health-related, seems to have become the main reason to make the familiar trip back to my native turf in Northern Virginia.

Here's one thing we can stipulate: For many North Carolinians, the election of a state Supreme Court justice who has boasted of his "core conservative Republican values" and expressed dismay with liberal Democrats, abortion and gay rights means that God's in his heaven and all's right with the world.

It would be nice to think that David Miner, the Cary Republican who generally comports himself as one of the more sensible members of his party in the state House, knew better.

If you've ever been drinking beer at the ballpark and, with sales about to be cut off in the late innings, been tempted to buy two brews on your final trip to the concession stand to last you to the end of the game, then you'll have an intuitive feel for what big-time political campaign contributors are up against these days.

so inhibited that his idea of beach wear was a business suit -- incongruously espoused the "madman" theory of diplomacy. That's where you convince somebody whom you're trying to influence that you're capable of doing something really rash if you don't get your way. Something as rash, say, as invading Iraq. So is President Bush, in his ramrodding of a go-to-war permission slip through Congress, trying to hoo-doo Saddam Hussein into turning over all his nasty toys without a fight?

Imagine this: They've come to give you that last big send-off and amid the strains of "Amazing Grace" and "The Old Rugged Cross" they're calling you a -- gulp -- liberal! The unkindest cut of all?

If Saddam Hussein happened to be web-surfing on Friday and punched up www.white-house.gov (heck, he's probably got it bookmarked), he would have been flattered.

The emotions that flooded our country last week.

If it seems our Tar Heel summer must be at its sweltering peak, then that's a dependable tip-off: Before long, North Carolina's public schools will throw open their doors for another year.