What's that scary holiday where you're encouraged to dress up, hope for a trick or a treat, and expect candy? Where chatting up a virtual stranger after dark seems normal? When whispering voices warn to be afraid, to be very afraid, especially if you're on your own?

A little more than a year has passed since the publication of Amy Chua's "Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother" - the paroxysm-inducing guide to raising better children through belittlement, intimidation and tyrannical music practice - and already we have version 2.0. Pamela Druckerman's "Bringing Up Bebe" alleges that it's the French who could teach indulgent, over-scheduling, helicoptering American parents a thing or two about rearing les enfants.

If there's a single car that demonstrates the benefits of General Motors Co.'s global engineering and brand strategy, it's the 2012 Buick Verano.

The following editorial appeared in the Los Angeles Times on Thursday, Feb. 9:

One of my most conservative friends is Catholic, but he is not a "conservative Catholic." In my book, he'd only be a conservative Catholic if he opposed the death penalty (he supports it), opposed abortion (he believes women should have the right to chose) and engaged in natural family planning (he appreciates the fact that all women he's had sex with, including his wife, used the Pill or another artificial contraceptive to avoid unwanted pregnancy).

Too bad the brief but seismic split between Komen for the Cure and Planned Parenthood didn't explode in time for the Jan. 22 anniversary of Roe v. Wade.

Nothing better illustrates America's sliding status in today's Arab world than Egypt's decision to try 16 Americans who work for pro-democracy groups there.

Eight years is an aeon in politics. Witness the waning potency of the gay-marriage issue.

The following editorial appeared in the Los Angeles Times on Thursday, Feb. 9:

The following editorial appeared in the Baltimore Sun on Wednesday, Feb. 8:

If President Barack Obama and Mayor Rahm Emanuel really care about Chicago, they'll cancel the G-8 and NATO summits scheduled for May.

CHICAGO - How easy it would be to blame "Disney on Ice" for the Blackhawks resembling a Mickey Mouse operation at the start of their longest road trip since 1994.

The following editorial appeared in the Chicago Tribune on Wednesday, Feb. 8:

The following editorial appeared in the Chicago Tribune on Wednesday, Feb. 8: