A sampling of recent opinion articles, columns and guest columns from the Opinion page of the AJC

Q: What about the proposal for Milton County?A: If we were successful this year in getting a vote ... it would be a statewide referendum in November of 2010. Then come back in 2011, that session, and have a very short and simple piece of legislation that would ask the voters in North Fulton if they, too, would like to ratify the re-creation of Milton County.

This one’s for all the college-educated lonely hearts out there, just in time for Valentine’s Day.It’s for the women who gobble up books with titles like “He’s Just Not That Into You,” who sign up with multiple matchmaker Web sites, who maybe even thumb through well-worn copies of the Mars and Venus books.

Achieving a just and lasting peace in the Middle East is for the United States not only a matter of national security but a moral calling. The United States is the designated third party in this protracted conflict, both because we are the world’s only superpower and by sheer dint of our billions in tax dollars invested in Israel’s security every year.

In the midst of a fiscal meltdown, why would state leaders eliminate the most cost-effective program for helping Georgia students to attend and graduate from a four-year college?For more than three decades, the Tuition Equalization Grant has been a vital source of financial aid for Georgia residents choosing to attend one of the state’s private colleges or universities.

YES: Targeted jobs programs will boost employment.

By Christina D. Romer

There is no question that the U.S. faces a severe jobs deficit. We have lost 7.2 million jobs since the recession began more than two years ago and the unemployment rate is currently near 10 percent.

First, to save my soul — and to save my e-mail in-box from an overload of screeds from God-fearing folks — I offer this preface to today’s column:I firmly believe that, throughout the centuries, mankind has accomplished more good than harm acting in the name of God.

There is a crisis in our schools, a crisis of common sense. What else do you call it when a well-behaved, 14-year-old boy is treated like a criminal for voluntarily turning in a pocket knife to his principal?Zero tolerance policies often entrap good kids into a life of crime.