Among other things better known, philosopher George Santayana once declared: “Only the dead have seen the end of wars.” The admonition was a precise response to another slice of myopia from the rarely revered 28th president of the United States, Woodrow Wilson, who called World War I “a war to end all wars.”

As conservatives preen over the sudden celebrity of Sarah Palin and liberals twitter over the development, socialism’s creep accelerates toward full gallop.

Breaking the enduring quiet of Waynesboro’s City Hall, at last, are rumblings.

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Rains are expected to linger in the central Shenandoah Valley today as remnants of Tropical Storm Hanna roll into the upper Southeast, but they are unlikely to dampen the fun at the second annual Chili, Brews ’N Blues Cook-off, rescheduled from noon to 5:30 p.m. Sunday in the Constitution Park Pavilion.

The former owner of a business specializing in women’s fitness, Sam Rasoul seeks to shave fat from the federal budget by eliminating pork.

It takes a crisis. I’m paraphrasing the book, “It Takes a Village,” written by Sen. Hillary Clinton several years ago.

Cleaved by Eden’s Euphrates, Iraq’s Anbar Province bears war’s scars but no longer resemblance to Dante’s seventh circle.

The photograph at the top of Tuesday’s front page of The News Virginian shows Mark Warner soaked in perspiration, shaking a young admirer’s hand during the annual political Lollapalooza that is the Buena Vista Labor Day Parade.

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Demonstrating his remarkable propensity for bucking convention, John McCain managed Friday to surprise – and perhaps chill – by selecting Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as running mate.

On a cool day in August, the Illinois senator who would become Democratic presidential nominee stood before the crowds and declared amid cheers: “I have stood by my principles in fair weather and in foul, in the sunshine and in the rain. … I knew that the people would see in the end that I had done right, and I knew that the God of heaven would smile upon me if I was faithful in the performance of my duty.”

The cacophony of discordant voices emanating from City Hall in Waynesboro reached a crescendo during the orchestrated departure of City Manager Doug Walker that concluded almost 90 days ago.

A party whose constituency includes rock stars is perhaps bound to conceive them as politicians.

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In less than 90 days, America will elect a new president, but what will be the significance beyond the banal?

There are groups with which the prudent avoid trifling: authorities in Beijing and Pyongyang, the bulls in Pamplona and members of the organized effort to keep alcohol from the lips of those 18 to 20. Hell’s fury wilts when staring head-on at the scorn of Mothers Against Drunk Driving. But some are undaunted.

Once a candidate behind in the polls and fumbling in the dark for the switch, John McCain seems to have found the light in California.

In the chill before Christmas, Gov. Timothy M. Kaine was afflicted by tidings of joy from which he could not be dissuaded.

The candidate with the carefully coiffed reputation for straight talk finally delivered some Saturday in the hospitable environs of Rick Warren’s Saddleback Church, and in the process took one of two necessary steps to win the voting affections of conservatives en route to Pennsylvania Avenue.

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Mark Warner, the presumptive U.S. senator, whisks into Waynesboro this morning to open the Democratic Committee headquarters in Willow Oak Plaza before setting off for Staunton, all in the name of painting the Valley blue.

The world’s cauldrons are beginning to brim, a development that bodes ill for the world but well for John McCain’s presidential aspirations.

Gov. Timothy M. Kaine longs to walk in the shadow of Barack Obama, who these days is strolling beaches in Hawaii in between raising a cool million.

Demonstrating a politician’s enduring affinity for speaking loudly while carrying a soft stick, Gov. Timothy M. Kaine calls for Southern states to confer on a regional energy and climate change policy.

In an era when taboos have vanished, there remain third and fourth rails in American politics and opinion.

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A splash of fireworks illumined the night in Beijing but could not penetrate the darkness.

Republicans face a political calamity from which even Democrats might not save them. Virginia occupies a position in the northwest corner of a Southern swath stretching to Texas that since the age of Goldwater has been shaded deep red, but now appears within reach of the party of FDR. A Wall Street Journal story on the shift points to Newt Gingrich’s recent admonition: The Grand Old Party stares at the prospect of the “permanent minority status it had from 1930 to 1994.”

Feeling in their campaign backsides the sting of constituents’ ire over energy, Democrats are expending theirs in pursuit of what Sixth District congressional candidate Sam Rasoul refers to as a renewable revolution.