National: “How do we get people involved in our town?” So many of our communities and organizations are suffering from “STP” (same ten people) syndrome. It not only wears them out, we also miss the new people and ideas that can make a real difference. Comment.

Viewpoints: You hear certain political operatives make the claim that there was nothing agenda-related in this or that move they made or words they spoke, and you wonder why they even bother to invest time in those nonsense routines. Right on cue, the guys in Chicago who were hell-bent on trying to get Rahm Emanuel removed from the mayoral ballot by having the courts declare him ineligible on residency grounds, were making the obligatory comments about their action not being fueled by any political motivation. Comment.

National: Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia just asserted for a second time that our Constitution does not protect women against discrimination. That was one of the arguments for passing the proposed Equal Rights Amendment (ERA)., and ironically, people of Scalia’s “conservative” persuasion often countered that the ERA was not needed precisely because women are already protected by the 14th Amendment. Comment.

Viewpoints: It’s that time of year, when pundits across the country share their thoughts on what 2011 might bring. Rural America’s resolutions should be considered as well. Comment.

Viewpoints: Right on the heels of our recently addressing here the dangers thrown up by unchecked fundamentalist behavior, comes a display in Pakistan of exactly how unglued things can become in that kind of highly charged environment. The assassination of the governor of Punjab province by a member of his security detail, apparently because of his outspoken views against the country’s strict blasphemy laws, dramatized the difficulty of achieving any measure of violence-free co-existence where competing factions -- in this case secular and religious -- vie for domination of the space. Comment.

National: While the extension of Bush-era tax cuts dominated headlines during the recently-concluded lame duck session of Congress, the coming year will bring with it a renewed focus on public debt — whether policymakers like it or not. Comment.

New York: While some New Yorkers celebrate the onset of a new year, many low-income New Yorkers are still feeling the pain of 2010, a year when the economy continued to amplify the hardships and struggles of everyday New Yorkers. Comment.

New York: Brooklyn received a one-two punch in the wake of the Dec. 26 blizzard. First, we were slammed with the sixth-largest snowstorm eve; then City Hall’s inadequate response caused unnecessary chaos. Comment.

Music & Fashion: Jamaicans claim a mantra -- “If ah egg we inna di red.” Comment.