Americans have always liked to think that one of the remarkable achievements of U.S. society — differentiating it from the Old Country — was our social mobility. Our “aristocrats,” whether moneyed or “stars,” were mostly only a generation away from obscurity. And chances were their progeny wouldn’t hang on to their status unless they, too, were high achievers.

Ben S. Bernanke hopes his latest plan to stimulate the economy will get you to buy stocks and other risky assets. Maybe you should. People who did that after two similar Federal Reserve efforts are sitting on big gains today.

But the odds of fat profits aren’t looking as good this time and seem to be getting worse.

| General Motors rolled out the Chevrolet Volt two years ago with lofty sales goals and the promise of a new technology that someday would help end America’s dependence on oil.

So it seemed like a good thing in August when sales of the $40,000 car set a monthly record of 2,800. But a closer look shows that things aren’t what they seem for the cutting-edge car.

When the Founders chose the swampy marshland along the Potomac River to serve as the home for the federal government, they couldn’t have envisioned it would one day become a cesspool of violence. While crime rates have steadily declined in the rest of the country, the trajectory in the District is up. Or maybe it’s down. It depends on whom you ask.

The results are in: Friday’s “Day of Love” in Pakistan ended with 20 dead and hundreds wounded from anti-American rioting. That’s some tough love.

Amalaise has fallen over the economy. At a time when we should have fully recovered from the Great Recession, we’re still 4 million jobs short of where we were just a few years ago. Doubts about economic policy, particularly forthcoming changes in taxes, has turned this “recovery” into a job loser.

According to our system of government, there are many things that a president cannot do by himself. For example, a president cannot legally pass or change a law by himself; he needs Congress to pass the law and then he needs the courts to enforce it.

On the 11th anniversary of Sept. 11, 2001, Islamist militants stormed the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya, killing Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and three other Americans. According to several major news outlets, the facts now coming out indicate the Obama administration may have known in advance attacks were being planned against the American consulate in Libya.

President Obama’s modus operandi seems to be to blame everyone and everything but himself for his disastrous failures, and to always lead from behind on both foreign and domestic policies.

D

Culture challenge of the week: Bias and spin

Beware — during this heated election season, liberal self-styled “public interest” organizations might try to fool you.

NEW YORK| Rebuffing an intensive lobbying campaign, a task force of the American Psychiatric Association has decided not to list the disputed concept of parental alienation in the updated edition of its catalog of mental disorders.

The term conveys how a child’s relationship with one estranged parent can be poisoned by the other parent, and there is broad agreement that it sometimes occurs in the context of divorces and child-custody disputes.

MADRID

The image appears on T-shirts and cellphone covers, coffee mugs and wine labels. And the 80-year-old pensioner who just weeks ago was mortified by the global stir she created with her botched restoration of a fresco of Christ now is looking to get a piece of the action.

The Race for the White House produces two things: lots of attack ads and unwitting overnight celebrities. Think Sister Souljah. Joe the Plumber. Clint Eastwood’s empty chair. The little boy who spelled “potato” without an “e,” only to have Vice President Dan Quayle helpfully “correct” him.

With election season again upon us, The Washington Times begins a series remembering some of our favorite campaign one-hit wonders and asking: Where are they now?

— Sarah Michelle Gellar, talking with Entertainment Weekly about filming a clip for “Sesame Street”

A bill that would decriminalize gun and ammunition possession charges for some legal firearms owners from outside the city caught traveling through the District with their weapons goes before a D.C. Council committee Monday, a potential change to the law that comes too late for one Capitol Heights man.

Bumper-to-bumper traffic and packed parking lots have plagued Washington Redskins fans who’ve sojourned to FedEx Field for years, but Sunday, it seemed the only thing fans had to worry about was whether they had time for one more round of beer and burgers before kickoff.

Staff at the Smithsonian National Zoo were mourning Sunday as they announced the unexpected death of the giant panda cub born a week earlier.

Zoo officials said at a news conference that the cause of death was unknown, but an initial inspection of the cub showed no signs of external trauma or signs of disease or illness. They expected a preliminary report on the cub by Monday.

New labor statistics show the District’s unemployment rate continues to decline — from 8.9 percent in July to 8.8 percent in August — although the city still lags behind the national rate of 8.1 percent and nearly 1 in 4 residents of Ward 8 cannot find work.

D.C. Mayor Vincent C. Gray coyly referred to the “good news” during his biweekly press briefing last week, but he had to wait until Friday to unveil the embargoed numbers from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Constitution Party presidential candidate Virgil H. Goode Jr. will be on the November ballot in his home state of Virginia, but Republican fears that the former congressman could play spoiler for Mitt Romney should be lessened by recent polls showing Mr. Goode in the low single digits.

With Chicago’s ugly strike behind them, teachers unions are regrouping with a public relations blitz, meant to both repair a tarnished image and rally members who are under more fire than ever.

The American Federation of Teachers (AFT), the parent organization of the Chicago Teachers Union, will hold town halls, workshops and other events in the coming weeks in New York, Philadelphia and nearly a dozen other major cities, the labor group announced Friday.

On Friday night, I threw a party at one of my favorite places in Washington, the Monocle, celebrating the career of a friend, Rep. Edolphus Towns, New York Democrat, and his wife of 50 years Gwen. The evening went perfectly, with hundreds of guests coming from New York and across the nation to honor this member of Congress.

| In most courtrooms, spontaneous applause could get you thrown out.

But in this San Francisco court, it’s expected — and strongly encouraged for the defendants.

Bowls of hard candy rest in front of the judge’s bench as a reward for people making their weekly court appearances and attending group therapy. Almost daily, the judge awards one standout a $5 grocery store gift card — while the gallery claps and cheers.

| It sounds like a free-market success story: a natural-gas boom created by drilling company innovation, delivering a vast new source of cheap energy without the government subsidies that solar and wind power demand.

“The free market has worked its magic,” the Barnett Shale Energy Education Council, an industry group, claimed over the summer.

| At bustling intersections where fast-walking, rapid-texting New Yorkers come together with cars, cabs, carriage horses and daredevil bicycle messengers, the city is trying to slip in an emphatic message: LOOK!

That word is being stenciled onto the crosswalks of 110 of the city’s most dangerous intersections, where officials hope it will catch the eyes of pedestrians who walk with their heads buried in their smartphones.

In the wake of the strike by the Chicago Teachers Union, many people wonder what the union is complaining about.

After all, Chicago teachers make an average of $76,000 for a nine-month year, 60 percent higher than the average annual income for a family in Chicago and 58 percent more than the average yearly pay for a Chicagoan with a bachelor’s degree. They get a huge package of benefits on top of that.

America is no doubt the greatest country the world has ever known. Our citizens have the opportunity to be anything they want to be, worship as they please and live as they please. We are truly free.

Still, Americans are suffering. They have lost their jobs, they have lost their home, and in many situations, they have lost hope.

For the black community, the situation is even more dire.

If you build it, jobs will come.

That’s what Marylanders are being promised in the push to build a new casino, the state’s sixth, in Prince George’s County. County Executive Rushern L. Baker III, for example, claims that “the expansion of gaming into Prince George’s County is about the thousands of new jobs, millions of dollars in revenue to the state and county, and growing the travel and tourism industry in Prince George’s County.”

Iwas driving into Washington the other day when a radio clip of Hillary Rodham Clinton got my attention. The secretary of state was emoting hotly, using terms such as “disgusting” and “reprehensible.”

GOVERNMENT BULLIES: HOW EVERYDAY AMERICANS ARE BEING HARASSED, ABUSED, AND IMPRISONED BY THE FEDS

By Sen. Rand Paul

Center Street, $21.99, 280 pages

This is the right time for such an effort. Drug traffickers already are struggling with the flow of cash back to their coffers, and the fight against terrorism has given us new tools and talents to intercept funds. It is a tactic fit to an age of austerity, because when the government seizes the cash flow of drug traffickers, it gets to keep the money, which would reduce rather than bloat our debt.

At the Democratic National Convention a few weeks ago, President Obama told the country that the economy he inherited was not something that could be fixed in four years. Rather, he said, it will take him a second term to fully realize the fruits of his policies and experience a robust economic recovery. Considering how unsuccessful his previous attempts at predicting the economic recovery have been, it’s doubtful that even Mr. Obama believes this claim.

Other Republicans may be worried about the campaign prospects of Mitt Romney, but not Rep. Jim Jordan, chairman of the conservative caucus in the House, who said voters have made the decision to reject President Obama and replace him with the GOP nominee.

A year after President Obama largely defused a diplomatic showdown at the United Nations over Palestinian statehood, his difficulties with the Muslim world are multiplying rapidly as he prepares to address the U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday.

Federal investigators were able to get fraudulent driver’s licenses in all three states where they tried, according to a report released Friday that shows continued problems with states’ ID programs more than 11 years after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks highlighted the problem.

States are particularly flummoxed by out-of-state documents, according to investigators from the Government Accountability Office who conducted the audit.

| When bearded Democratic maverick Rick Nolan dropped out of Congress 32 years ago to start a vegetable farm in rural Minnesota, the Reagan revolution was just beginning and his future Republican rival was a student at the U.S. Naval Academy.

Now a silver-haired businessman with grandchildren, Mr. Nolan is trying to go back to Washington.

The House took a parting shot at what critics say are the Obama administration’s policies to discourage coal production Friday by passing a package of bills designed to rein in the Environmental Protection Agency’s ability to impose regulations on the struggling industry.

| Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign strove to turn the page on a week of public stumbles and Republican hand-wringing Sunday, promising a redoubled effort in the most competitive states to undercut his opponent’s economic record as voters tune in for the final six weeks of a deadlocked race.

With six weeks left in the presidential campaign, just 7 percent of likely voters have yet to choose a candidate, according to an Associated Press-GfK poll. When combined with those who are leaning toward one candidate or the other, but far from firm in their choice, about 17 percent of likely voters are what pollsters consider “persuadable.”

That includes 6 percent who give soft support to President Obama and 4 percent for his Republican challenger, Mitt Romney.

In September 1980, Gallup had President Carter up by 4 percentage points over some former Hollywood actor named Ronald Reagan. The incumbent president and commander in chief had already delivered his catastrophic “crisis of confidence” speech, the economy was imploding — double-digit inflation, a national gas crisis — and there was, as now, an Iran impasse and a bungling foreign policy. Still, the onetime peanut farmer held a solid lead and looked about to win re-election.

From the killing of an ambassador to precipitous new brinkmanship in Asia and friction between U.S. and Israeli leaders over Iran, the past month has many asking whether the presidential election has suddenly entered a home stretch in which national security and foreign policy play as big a role as the economy.

Indeed, both President Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney used interviews that aired Sunday on “60 Minutes” to hit their rival on foreign policy.

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. | On his second snap of his second senior season, Maryland linebacker Kenneth Tate brought down West Virginia’s Tavon Austin for no gain.

A play later, he broke up a pass intended for Austin to force a punt.

“It felt good,” Tate said.

Just like old times?

“I feel fine,” Tate said while offering a mildly amused gaze. “I’m back to normal.”

The pose was one of complete confusion. Arms out to the side, head cocked slightly in the air, eyes searching. By the end of Sunday afternoon’s 6-2 loss to the Milwaukee Brewers, two Washington Nationals outfielders had perfected it.

The Nationals first battled Yovani Gallardo, and then the sun, on a crisp fall day as the Brewers made sure two costly dropped fly balls counted and secured at least a split of their four-game set.

| With the biggest round of his career, Brandt Snedeker won something far more valuable than money Sunday.

He proved to himself he could beat the best in the world.

Snedeker knew his best chance to be the FedEx Cup champion was to win the Tour Championship, no simple task with East Lake as tough as ever and Rory McIlroy and Tiger Woods going after the same prize.

Snedeker was the only player in the last five groups to break par.

| Denny Hamlin won the NASCAR race at New Hampshire on Sunday, getting the mistake-free trip he needed to win for the series-leading fifth time this year.

Jimmie Johnson finished second and took the lead in the Chase for the Sprint Cup.

Jeff Gordon was third.

Florida State was perhaps Saturday’s biggest winner, its 49-37 defeat of Clemson providing a bit of validation for the Seminoles’ top-five ranking.

For its part, the ACC didn’t do too bad itself with the result.

| Navy Midshipmen lead disciplined lives. They wake up promptly at 0530 every morning and go through each day exactly according to schedule. Even touchdowns on the football field are celebrated by pushups behind the end zone.

| Angel Pagan let out a cheer as he ran in from center field with both arms raised after catching the final out to secure San Francisco its second NL West crown in three seasons.

Sure, the outfield around him looks a whole lot different than it did a month and a half ago when suspended All-Star game MVP Melky Cabrera was still around leading the way.

For so many years, the Ryder Cup didn’t need a cast of stars to become the biggest spectacle in golf. The flags stitched onto the shirts and caps, and the colors on the leaderboards — American red, European blue — were enough to produce raw emotion, enormous pressure and compelling theater.

And that’s what makes the 39th edition of the Ryder Cup seem even bigger.

Kedric Golston stood near his locker and stroked his goatee late Sunday afternoon as he contemplated how to answer the question that has come to define this Washington Redskins season after two straight ugly defensive performances in a pair of losses.

The good news for the Washington Redskins is their newfound scoring punch, largely due to Robert Griffin III’s impact as franchise quarterback and savior. Washington has scored at least 28 points in each of its three games this season.

| Call this one Music City Mayhem.

The Tennessee Titans are winless no more after an unforgettable overtime victory over the Detroit Lions featuring an endless stream of big plays and some suspect officiating.

Rob Bironas kicked a 26-yard field goal in overtime, and the Titans stopped backup quarterback Shaun Hill on fourth and 1 at the Tennessee 7 to finally pull out a 44-41 win Sunday.

| Wide receiver Torrey Smith rejoined the Ravens on Sunday night, less than 24 hours after his younger brother was killed in a motorcycle accident.

Tevin Chris Jones, 19, died late Saturday night in Westmoreland County in northeast Virginia. He was riding his motorcycle on Route 672 when he ran off the right side of the roadway and struck a utility pole, according to Virginia State Police.

Jones was pronounced dead at the scene, police said.

| Christian Ponder didn’t flinch against that feisty, swarming San Francisco defense.

Minnesota’s flourishing young quarterback engineered a stunning victory after two of his more-decorated division peers fell well short.

Ponder threw two touchdown passes to tight end Kyle Rudolph and ran for another score to help the Vikings hand the 49ers their first defeat, 24-13 on Sunday.

Trent Williams tried. After leaving Sunday’s loss to the Cincinnati Bengals on the Washington Redskins’ second offensive play from scrimmage with a right knee injury, the left tackle attempted to come back.

He couldn’t stay on the field. A few plays in the second quarter and a handful in the third, and Williams had to spend the rest of the game watching as Robert Griffin III faced relentless pressure.

Mike Shanahan watched the Cincinnati Bengals’ sideline empty onto the field, but he knew the game wasn’t over. With seven seconds left after Robert Griffin III spiked the ball, a false-start penalty on Fred Davis was all it took for havoc to erupt.

The problem came down to belief.

That’s what Alfred Morris insisted next to empty chairs and full equipment bags in a quiet corner of the Washington Redskins’ locker room Sunday. The running back sounded like a motivational speaker, not a rookie, as he explained the adjustment that transformed his team’s offense in the second half of the 38-31 loss to the Cincinnati Bengals at FedEx Field.

As the Army’s 3rd Infantry Division wages war in southern Afghanistan, some of its soldiers back home at Fort Stewart, Ga., have found themselves in the middle of a different kind of battle.

Before deploying in August, the division trained with a sophisticated data-processing software known as Palantir, which troops have praised as a great way to find roadside bombs, or improvised explosive devices (IEDs).

| Libya’s president has ordered all of the country’s militias to come under government authority or disband, a move that appeared aimed at harnessing popular anger against the powerful armed groups following the attack that killed the U.S. ambassador.

| Syrian opposition figures called Sunday for the overthrow of President Bashar Assad at a rare meeting of anti-regime groups held in the government-controlled capital Damascus, a possible attempt by the gathering to position itself as an alternative to the armed rebellion.

| One is a former prime minister known for his nationalistic views. A second is a hawkish former defense chief.

And a third is the son of Tokyo’s outspoken governor whose proposal to buy and develop a cluster of uninhabited islands claimed by both China and Japan has set off a territorial furor between the two countries.

Volha Starastsina saw no choice but to flush her work down the police-station toilet.

That was the only place the Belarusian journalist could hide TV footage after being detained for interviewing people about upcoming elections in the repressive state.