Yet, it ought to be obvious that good music generally occupies a higher plane that mere politics. Great writers can express moods through melody and capture experiences we share most powerfully - love, lust, longing; joy, rage, fear; triumph, yearning and confusion.

Love can achieve unexpected majesty in the rocky soil of misfortune.

We live in an anaesthetized society.

American journalists and politicians made a perfect spectacle of themselves in discussing the Abu Ghraib prison controversy.

If you think Independence Day is America's defining holiday, think again. Thanksgiving deserves that title, hands-down.

Sure, science involves trial and error. Scientists refine theories each day. But as they do, they help us grasp more clearly the wonders of the world and the universe.

It makes no sense to pack an auditorium with 5,000 people and then tell them to keep quiet.