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Give it to New Yorker magazine. It pulled out every rumor and stereotype the far right has dredged up about Barack and Michelle Obama for its current magazine cover. They're standing in the Oval Office, and he's dressed as a Muslim. She's a terrorist.

It's supposed to be satire, a comical way of shooting down all of that nonsense circulating on the Internet about the presidential candidate. Problem is, not everybody is as intellectual as those New Yorker readers. Some anti-Obama zealots will take the satire as gospel truth---and run with it! (Trust me, I get their e-mails. Some of these folks are a few croutons short of a salad.) Notice, I said "zealots," not "critics." I know lots of Obama critics who will easily see the cover as satire.

Some people don't "get" satire. I learned that earlier this year when I wrote a satirical piece about Advance Auto moving to Minnesota. Even when I came back the next week and wrote a column explaining that the original was satire, somebody named Pat accused me of being like an ex-spouse, willing to say anything to cover for a mistake. Huh?

Anyway, hit me back with your take on the New Yorker cover.

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We see the best in our loved ones.

The friends and family of Corey Ramsey are no exception.

They saw Ramsey as the guy with a faint, warm smile peering out from a photograph at a candlelight vigil. Or as a high school athlete sporting a black and brown letterman's jacket in another photograph.

To Violet Barber, Ramsey was a fiance. To friend Vanessa Moore, he was "a good person."

But there was another, darker side to Ramsey.

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On June 7, 1981, a squadron of Israeli Air Force F-16A fighter aircraft, with an escort of F-15As, bombed and heavily damaged the Osirak reactor.

The Israeli "Nuclear Reactor Strike" and Syrian Weapons of Mass Destruction October 24, 2007

The attached analysis shows, however, that several things that are clear about Syria's position, and puts any Syrian nuclear efforts in context. In brief:

Syrian chemical and possible biological capabilities do not give it a meaningful deterrent to Israel, do not rival Israel's status as a nuclear power, and might do more to justify an Israeli use of nuclear weapons in retaliation than achieve strategic benefits.

Iranian president says war with U.S., Israel ... including threats to hit Israel and U.S. Gulf bases with missiles and stop oil traffic

Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., stated that sanctions and direct negotiations are the best way to deal with Iran Missile Test situation.

I respect the ideals of our youth yet,

If Sen. Obama thinks Israel is going let Iran Reactor go on line then he is delusional. History proves no matter who is in office Israel will attack that reactor.

Backlash

When Scott Ackman signed up to be a foot soldier for democracy and social change, peacocks weren't supposed to be part of the deal.

The 20-year-old Virginia Tech student was three weeks into his summer job canvassing neighborhoods and asking voters what they considered the most important issues. Their answers would be used to attempt to influence state lawmakers.

But one afternoon in early June, no one was home at a house in North Roanoke County. So Ackman neatly tucked a health care flier and a 2008 voter guide in the door, turned and started walking down the driveway.

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Young black men are in peril.

We see it in the barrage of statistics that define the challenges of being black and male in this society. More disturbing, we see it in the faces of too many boys and teens whose paths we cross.

From presidential candidates to pundits, everyone is talking about it.

But thankfully, Total Action Against Poverty in Roanoke has joined the ranks of those trying to do something to save the next generation of black men in this community.

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For pete's sakes, let the kids skateboard!

In typical fashion, the adults on the Vinton Town Council overreacted because a few bad apples have defaced a Gearhart Park skating area that, shamefully, town officials weren't taking care of anyway.

So what did the town leaders do? Voted to close the skate park by the end of this month.

There, that'll show those troublemaking kids.

Problem is, the council's shortsighted decision hurts the good kids, too.

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Roanoke native Rene Marie caused a dust-up Tuesday in Denver when she sang the lyrics of "Lift Ev'ry Voice and Sing" to the tune of the national anthem.

"Lift Ev'ry Voice and Sing" is known as the black national anthem. Our homegrown jazz singer, who now lives in Denver, pulled her switcheroo without the prior knowledge of her hosts at the mayor's State of the City speech.

Was Rene right or wrong?

At times during his four years as mayor, Nelson Harris very easily could have donned a flak jacket as standard gear.

But give the man props for firing a few relevant salvos of his own before leaving the job.

In an "exit interview" published Sunday in this newspaper, Harris served food for thought that Roanokers should chew on.

In a lengthy interview, Roanoke Times reporter Mason Adams asked Harris what the city needs to move forward. Predictably -- and correctly -- the former mayor cited better schools and regional cooperation.

But where Harris made me -- and others -- sit up was his mention of who is absent from the city's governing bodies. Without disparaging the current council members, Harris tactfully noted who isn't there.

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Doing exercises in the middle of the newly renovated YWCA pool Monday morning, Helen Kitts of Vinton was a trouper.

Every time aquatics coordinator Bernetta McGuire called out another exercise routine, Kitts, who turns 82 this month, did them effortlessly.

Until the dastardly leg kicks.

Clasping the edge of the pool, Kitts grimaced the first time as she slowly raised her right leg. She hung in and completed that set of five. Then she soldiered through the next set on her left leg.

They don't call folks such as Kitts "The Greatest Generation" for nothing.

She was among a group of older women Monday who helped inaugurate the reopening of the therapeutic pool at the YWCA. The heated, 60-foot-by-17-foot pool is the largest aquatic outlet for the elderly and disabled in the Roanoke Valley.

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