The American Revolution and Declaration of Independence, it has often been argued, were fueled by the most radical of all American political ideas.

We are in the process of creating what deserves to be called the idiot culture. Not an idiot sub-culture, which every society has bubbling beneath the surface and which can provide harmless fun; but the culture itself. For the first time, the weird and the stupid and the coarse are becoming our cultural norm, even our cultural ideal.

The Congress is a dysfunctional institution; its broken. One of our three branches of government is broken.

The American Revolution and Declaration of Independence, it has often been argued, were fueled by the most radical of all American political ideas.

John Paul was the first modern pope to grow up in a secular culture: He attended public schools, danced with girls - indeed, as a teenager he had a crush on a beautiful Jewish girl who fled his hometown just ahead of the arrival of the Germans.

The pressure to compete, the fear somebody else will make the splash first, creates a frenzied environment in which a blizzard of information is presented and serious questions may not be raised.

I think all good reporting is the same thing - the best attainable version of the truth.