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The optimism we felt earlier this month about a federal shield law for journalists has been replaced by impatience.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.

Is Illinois at grave risk of a terror attack, willing to trade away the safety of its citizens for a few hundred million bucks? That's been the message over the last few days as some politicians have tried to play on people's fears amid a debate over possibly selling little-used Thomson Correctional Center in the northwest part of the state to the federal government to use as a prison, with space reserved for the military to house inmates from the soon-to-be-closed Guantanamo Bay camp for terror detainees.

Chris Britt's editorial cartoon for Wednesday, Nov. 18.

One of the most cherished moments of a wedding day is when the bride and groom’s closest friends share a special story about the couple in front of all the guests. The story is often so special and so touching that the happy couple will look at each other during the speech with a twinkle in their eyes that says, “Why on earth did we give your friend a microphone?”

I understand the controversy over the government’s plan to move the al-Qaida and Taliban prisoners at Guantanamo Bay to a little-used state prison at Thomson, 70 miles southwest of Rockford in Carroll County. I also know the political reality. There are, however, legitimate issues on which reasonable people can agree to disagree.

Fear of international terrorists takes “not in my backyard” to a whole new level. We presume that’s why Rep. Don Manzullo, R-Egan, normally a rational, deliberative lawmaker, went ballistic over news the Obama administration wants to put terrorism suspects at a nearly vacant prison at Thomson when the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, is closed.

Politics is a bit like playing poker. If you tip your hand too soon, your opponent has little difficulty calculating your behavior and finding your weak spot. Play a few hands with someone who can figure out how you bet your cards, and it won’t take long before to have the smallest pile of chips at the poker table. It’s a metaphor that accurately reflects the politics being played out on the Thomson prison issue.

As Congress recently debated extending the federal tax credit to first-time homebuyers to help the economy recover, there were concerns that the move would only end up piling on more debt to a country breaking spending records left and right. Despite a staggering $1.4 trillion federal deficit in the last fiscal year and the prospect of ending up more in hock to the Chinese who hold a big part of our new debt, Congress not only approved the idea, but expanded it. Now Illinois - hardly an island of fiscal sanity - may end up considering a similar tax credit of its own.

The health reform bill passed out of the U.S. House on Nov. 7 is better than no reform at all. But the U.S. Senate, which is finalizing its version, has the opportunity now to pass something much better.

Chris Britt's editorial cartoon for Tuesday, Nov. 17.

If there were a more effective way of weeding out ne’er-do-wells on the Internet, I’d strongly recommend using it. Such a mechanism would be helpful in identifying those who have good intentions and those who want to rip you off.