It is sad that the Republican leadership is not as interested as they say they are in protecting the institution of marriage as they are in waging a campaign to divide and distract the American people from the real issues that need to be addressed.

There is no international problem that can be addressed or solved without the engagement and leadership of the United States and everybody in the world knows that its just fact of life. So sometimes I think we could conduct ourselves with a little more humility.

Studies have consistently shown that financial hardship is the biggest obstacle to heterosexual marriage yet the Republican leadership has done precious little to help address the financial hardship faced by American families.

We're going to need to absorb some pain. The Republicans want to pile all the pain on people who can least afford it and the middle class and Democrats under his leadership want to make sure that we can address deficit reduction and continue to make investments and shared sacrifice is going to be imperative in order to be able to do that.

The monopoly of science in the realm of knowledge explains why evolutionary biologists do not find it meaningful to address the question whether the Darwinian theory is true.

And most importantly perhaps children can learn about their rights share their knowledge with the children of other nations identify problems with them and establish how they might work together to address them.

I had a non-existent knowledge of Queen Victoria's early years. Like everyone else I thought of her as an old lady dressed in black. My mom had told me about her though that she had a very loving relationship with Albert that they had lots of kids and that he died young.

Someday we'll learn the whole story of why George W. Bush brushed off that intelligence briefing of Aug. 6 2001 'Bin Laden Determined to Strike in U.S.' But surely a big distraction was the major speech he was readying for delivery on Aug. 9 his first prime-time address to the nation.

Common sense is genius dressed in its working clothes.

President Obama called for a 'we' nation in his Inauguration Address. Art convenes. It is not just inspirational. It is aspirational. It pricks the walls of our compartmentalized minds opens our hearts and makes us brave. And that's what we need most in our country today.