Laws are important precisely because in a democracy they reflect the attitudes and aspirations of those they govern.

There is a paranoid streak in American life. Radio talk show hosts tend to foment that paranoid streak in American life.

A good lawyer knows how to shut up when he's won his case.

But the United States is neither a Christian nation nor the exclusive home of any particular religious group. Non-Christians are not guests. We are as much hosts as any Mayflower-descendant Protestant. It is our home as well as theirs. And in a home with so many owners, there can be no official sectarian prayer. That is what the First Amendment is all about, and the first act by the new administration was in defiance of our Constitution.

We don't have an Official Secrets Act in the United States, as other countries do. Under the First Amendment, freedom of the press, freedom of speech, and freedom of association are more important than protecting secrets.

Being offended by freedom of speech should never be regarded as a justification for violence.

In today's distorted world of 'human rights,' truth takes a back seat to ideology, and false claims - especially those that 'support' radical ideologies - persist even after they have been exposed.