Voters cannot hold officials responsible if they do not know what government is doing, or which parts of government are doing what.

The best use of history is as an inoculation against radical expectations, and hence against embittering disappointments.

Sports is a moral undertaking because it requires of participants, and it schools spectators in the appreciation of, noble things - courage, grace under pressure, sportsmanship.

According to the University of Illinois' Arctic Climate Research Center, global sea ice levels now equal those of 1979.

Sarah Palin, who with 17 months remaining in her single term as Alaska's governor quit the only serious office she has ever held, is obsessively discussed as a possible candidate in 2012. Why? She is not going to be president and will not be the Republican nominee unless the party wants to lose at least 44 states.

The First Amendment is not a blanket freedom-of-information act. The constitutional newsgathering freedom means the media can go where the public can, but enjoys no superior right of access.

The proof of liberal virtue is generousity with other people's money.