The past couple days The Oakland Press has written editorials about the texting ban, signed into law today by Gov. Jennifer Granholm, and the smoking ban, which takes effect Saturday (May 1).

Opponents of both argue that there's too much government regulation in our lives. However, the texting ban is just plain common sense, whether you like the new government regulation or not.

The smoking ban not quite as easy to defend. Yes, there's no arguing that smoking is dangerous to your health. But the debate over banning it in public places could go on indefinitely.

However, with both the texting and smoking ban, there's one point you pretty much can’t argue with — they're both the law.

Editorials usually take a stand — one way or another — on an issue. But sometimes — with complicated issues — it's not easy and even not right to pick a side. Editorials are meant to make you think; make you realize there are two, if not, more sides to an issue; and, in a theme that will be repeatedly expressed in this blog, the editorial is an "opinion." You can't argue with someone's opinion, only the facts that they may use to back it up.

Two controversial topics will be explored in my next blog.

On Friday (April 30) Gov. Jennifer Granholm is expected to sign - on the Oprah Winfrey show - a bill banning texting while driving.

On Saturday (May 1) Michigan's public smoking ban will take affect with considerable applause and boos from state residents.

Got an opinion about an opinion you read on our editorial page? Well, here's where you can come to discuss it.

The old saying goes that life is a book and each day allows you to write a new page.

Thanks to the Internet, we have an unlimited number of pages to start our day. But don't worry, I'll keep my blogs relatively short — with an emphasis on "relatively."

This is my first of what hopefully will be many blogs to come where we can discuss what was on the editorial page as well as why it was printed. In some cases, I may give you an example of something that wasn't proper to run and so did not get published.

"Why" is an important word in journalism but sometimes we don't learn the "why" or the reasons behind an action as fully as we’d like.

So, if you’re wondering “why” or “why” not a letter or guest opinion was printed or left out, I’ll give you an answer. Whether the answer is satisfactory to you or not I’ll leave up to you because satisfactory is one of those words that can be “relative” — what may be satisfactory to one person may not be to another — hence opinion.

This blog will be informational. It will be a forum for debate and include some humor (mine) but most important, it will give you some insight about The Oakland Press opinion page.