It is impossible to exaggerate the wide, and widening, gulf between the American attitude on the Iraq war and the view from our friends across the Atlantic.

Social Security is at last on the nation's front burner.

We like to believe that, in our lifetime, the human condition is improving.

We didn't defeat the Nazis by becoming Nazis.

Currently, 94 out of 100 of us pay the Social Security tax all year round.

In economic panics throughout history, the wiping out of the savings accounts of lower earners and the middle class has often led to social revolution, sometimes violent upheavals.

For some reason, on that sparkling afternoon last week, I actually saw the coal that was passing by and it set me to thinking how important coal was to our everyday lives when I was a little boy.