every relationship you are in will fail, until one doesn't

Every American may have equal access to ice cream, but there's no guarantee that the outcome of eating ice cream will be equal.

When you're a writer, you want to try to avoid cliches. Unfortunately, when you're writing about marriage or family, all cliches seem to apply.

Sometimes I talk to religious people about my column or what I do, and I ask them to, you know, read 20 or 30 of them and then come tell me that the message at the heart of every column isn't, 'Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.' In every possible sense.

But it doesn't matter what you're doing, it matters how you're doing it.

Yes, yes: Taking out Saddam Hussein means war, and war is bad for children and other living things. I went to grade school in the 1970s, and I recall the poster. But there are times when war is not only a tragic and unavoidable necessity, but also good for children and other living things.

Don't move to Seattle and write a stupid sex advice column. That's a waste of time and you need to grow up and get serious.