Prosecutors insist they are mounting a "thorough investigation," which sometimes means thorough and sometimes, historically, has meant long enough to let the fire burn down in an incendiary case. A thorough investigation is fine; an interminable one is disgraceful.

I've been a feminist since I was a teenager, but originally it was because I wanted to make the world a better place for me.

Sure smokers have made personal choices. And they pay for those choices every day, whether sitting through an airline flight dyingfor a smoke, or dying for a smoke in the oncology wing of a hospital. The tobacco companies have not paid nearly enough for the killing.

The difference between government and leadership is that leadership has a soul.

I'm going to live long enough to live in an America that will assume universal health care is a basic right. That will be amusing and terrific.

Here is one of the worst things about having someone you love die: It happens again every single morning.

I went to a women's college. ... it was a little like learning to swim while holding on to the side of the pool; I didn't learn the arm movements until after I graduated, but by that time I was one hell of a kicker.