Any work of art represents a series of conscious choices on the part of the artist - what color to paint, what note to play, what word to use - in that artist's attempt to share what is in his or her soul. The audience is free to accept or reject those choices; it is emphatically not free to substitute its own.

Any work of art represents a series of conscious choices on the part of the artist - what color to paint, what note to play, what word to use - in that artist's attempt to share what is in his or her soul. The audience is free to accept or reject those choices; it is emphatically not free to substitute its own.

It is said by Bush men and women that we fought (the Iraq War) to strike against terrorism - except that Iraq had no documented role in the Sept. 11 attacks. It is said that we fought from a moral objection to tyranny - except that we don't seem all that troubled by tyrants in nations that lack huge oil reserves. Everything is said except the truth: that we rushed into an unnecessary war on a half-baked mission. And that the repercussions of our hubris will shadow us for years.

The headline here is not that a woman exposed a breast. It is, rather, that a breast exposed a woman.

Too often our leaders cannot work for the greater good because they acknowledge no good greater than politics. But if that's truly our prime directive and highest imperative, God help us all.

Don't nobody like a man they can't figure.

Do that which serves your cause, not that which serves your rage.