Even though justice should be pursued for the victims of molestation by Catholic priests, the editorial board worries that the legal grounds used for an investigation into Cardinal Roger M. Mahony stretch prosecutorial creativity too far. The board also looks at the curious case of a billboard magnate who claims to be an artist, and comes out in firm support of the Los Angeles Unified School District's exams during the academic year, despite a call by the teachers' union to boycott the tests, as a useful way of keeping students' learning on track:

If a test showed that most of a fourth-grade class couldn't convert fractions to decimals, even though the teacher had covered that material, wouldn't the teacher want to know as soon as possible? .... Teachers who fail to carry out such a basic duty as a required exam should be written up. Student progress is simply not negotiable.

On the other side of the fold, columnist Joel Stein isn't happy that he's being asked to vote again, just a few months after he completed a fatiguing ballot. P.W. Singer of the Brookings Institution outlines the way modern war is increasingly fought by machines, and writer Henry Alford tells the story of a 114-year-old woman who can teach us something about not just the quantity but the quality of longevity.

I would argue that man has accorded himself long life because elders serve an important role in society. As an old African saying runs, "the death of an old person is like the burning of a library." These living libraries are among our greatest sources of wisdom.

* Illustration by Joel Pett / Lexington Herald-Leader