ONCE AGAIN, Congress is having a brawl over raising the debt ceiling, which limits how much money the Treasury Department is allowed to borrow to pay the government's bills. Such affrays are a Washington tradition, and all the customary rituals are being observed.

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THE 20TH ANNIVERSARY of 9/11 reminded Americans of how one attack on the homeland can change the course of history. But another reminder came just a month earlier, when a California parole board recommended the release of the man responsible for the first real act of Middle Eastern terrorism against America.

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YOM KIPPUR, the Day of Atonement, is the most solemn and awe-filled day of the Jewish year. For millennia, Jews have spent this highest of holy days — which begins Wednesday at sundown and lasts until nightfall Thursday — in fasting, prayer, and contrition. Synagogues will be crowded. Jews, including many not normally given to religious observance, will gather to confess their sins, express repentance, and seek God's forgiveness.

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MEETING WITH congressional leaders on Sept. 12, 2001, one day after the the worst terrorist atrocity in world history, President George W. Bush expressed two concerns. One was that it would be a challenge to maintain an unflagging focus on fighting the threat from al-Qaeda and other violent jihadists. The other was something else entirely.

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AT HIS TRIAL for the murder of Robert F. Kennedy, Sirhan Sirhan testified that when he gunned down the charismatic Democratic presidential candidate in 1968, he did so "with 20 years of malice aforethought."

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