During the Civil War, a peculiar and brutal Confederate legion terrorized Union camps in western North Carolina and eastern Tennessee. Eventually, Union leaders called on a regiment from Peoria to take care of the problem. The key battle has largely gone forgotten in the South, but that might change.

While explaining to my co-workers how I had poisoned my unsuspecting husband, Jim, I was quick to point out that it was purely an accident. They were quicker to point out that most people behind bars for the same crime had probably used that very same defense. But Jim didn’t die, and I’m sure he was too blinded by puppy love at the time to even consider prosecuting me. In fact, he didn’t even tell me I had poisoned him until 15 years after that near-fatal night.

One man's opinion: The videos that are too funny to believe are not believable.

Well, it's over, there are no more waffles. I am going to pause for a moment to let that news sink in and give you the time, if you are so moved, to kill yourself, because this waffle fiasco is pretty definitively the worst thing to happen to our collective breakfast-related condition since the lunchtime mauling of Sonny the Cocoa Puffs bird in that panther cage (he was so young and chocolatey).

As readers know, I’ve been generally supportive of U.S. Rep. Don Manzullo, R-Egan, over the years. I especially applaud his hard work aimed at restoring America’s manufacturing sector to prominence. But today, I will disagree with him. I can’t support Manzullo’s position on an Obama administration plan to move al-Qaida and Taliban detainees from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to Thomson prison, 70 miles from Rockford. I think Don and the staff are suffering from Obama Derangement Syndrome, a common Republican virus.

For all the disagreement and debate over health care lately, it ought to be satisfying that many Americans can still find some common ground on which to unite. Unfortunately being united in confusion isn't necessarily a good thing. Such was the case earlier this week when a federal panel, the Preventive Services Task Force, issued a new set of recommendations for women on the type of screening they ought to undergo to test for breast cancer.

The recent announcement that five Sept. 11 terrorist attack suspects would be moved from the Guantánamo detention center to be tried in New York City has caused quite a stir.

After leukemia began mercilessly sapping the life out of her young body, Joey Stott of Lena, Ill., knew she needed a miracle to survive. That miracle turned out to be Tom Wilhelm of Colorado. Tom had signed up as a marrow donor through BeTheMatch.org, joining a growing registry of 12 million people willing to give a small piece of themselves to save the life of someone they have never met. 

Chris Britt's editorial cartoon for Friday, Nov. 20.

After enduring hell on earth, little Tabitha Gee now thrives amid at least three blessings. The 4-year-old is out of the hospital and will recover from her injuries, the only survivor of a quintuple murder that wiped out most of her family in September. 

No sooner had the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force report hit cyberspace Monday than doctors and patients across the country lined up to dispute it. Specifically, the task force’s recommendations that women forego regular mammograms until age 50, at which point they should have them only every two years, drew the ire of those who have spent the last few decades preaching and practicing annual breast cancer screenings beginning at age 40.

Chris Britt's editorial cartoon for Thursday, Nov. 19.

Few things can be both as satisfying and infuriating as sleep. When you’re really tired, nothing is better than sinking into bed, closing your eyes and letting the world drift away until your alarm goes off. Sometimes, however, it’s not so easy; sometimes sleep decides to elude us.

The optimism we felt earlier this month about a federal shield law for journalists has been replaced by impatience. The act still is stuck in the Senate Judiciary Committee. It’s been on the committee’s executive agenda for seven months. With the White House now on board with the changes, what’s the holdup?

In politics, we expect a certain amount of hyperbole. What we have heard in opposition to using the Thomson Correctional Center to house Guantanamo terror suspects, however, amounts to unadulterated hysteria. Serious issues deserve serious discussion, not crazed fear-mongering that wildly exaggerates the unknown while willfully ignoring obvious facts.