Righteous indignation is a wholly appropriate response when one is falsely accused of impropriety. But when the perception of wrongdoing extends to multiple incidents, as in the case of House Speaker Sal DiMasi, then all the finger-pointing bluster by the longtime North End representative should and will do nothing to dissuade the state Ethics Commission from investigating all of DiMasi's ties to friends who have profited from legislative action under his watch.

Hopkinton's most important political decision of the year was made two weeks before the town election, when Town Meeting approved the zoning bylaw that paves the way for mixed-use development on land formerly owned by Weston Nurseries. But there are still good reasons for Hopkinton voters to stop by the polls Monday.

Four Supreme Court justices recused themselves from a controversial case in which dozens of U.S. corporations that did business in South Africa are being sued for $400 billion on behalf of any South African who was injured by the white government's official system of harsh segregation from 1948 to 1996.

Wind energy opponents - including those who have stalled for years the Cape Wind project in Nantucket Sound - rattle off a litany of objections. But a new proposal for a deep-water, off-shore wind farm answers all the skeptics' objections and, in addition to its environmental benefits, could be an economic boon to southeastern Massachusetts.

China's response to a devastating earthquake should make the Myanmar government ashamed of its own lackadaisical response to a lethal cyclone.

We'll cash those stimulus checks, but further action on the economy should be limited in cost and targeted toward families and sectors where a little additional stimulus will go a long way.

Since when did "elite" become a pejorative word?

"(T)o care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow and his orphan"

- Abraham Lincoln, Second inaugural address

Recently the Department of Homeland Security came out with a report on the proper verbal etiquette federal agencies should use in talking about the murderous scum who are trying to kill us all. The report found its way to the Associated Press and a good thing, too, because the rest of us need to know this stuff.

The gasoline-tax holiday as proposed by Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton and John McCain may be good politics, but it's bad economics, very bad economics.