When you are in any contest you should work as if there were - to the very last minute - a chance to lose it. This is battle this is politics this is anything.

Politics: A strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles. The conduct of public affairs for private advantage.

I think I first realized I wanted to be in country music and be an artist when I was 10. And I started dragging my parents to festivals and fairs and karaoke contests and I did that for about a year before I came to Nashville for the first time. I was 11 and I had this demo CD of me singing Dixie Chicks and Leanne Rimes songs.

All brave men love for he only is brave who has affections to fight for whether in the daily battle of life or in physical contests.

Children must be considered in a divorce considered valuable pawns in the nasty legal and financial contest that is about to ensue.

I listen to them freely and with all the respect merited by their intelligence their character their knowledge reserving always my incontestable right of criticism and censure.

In all honesty at that time I never saw myself as an author... I was just a Mom in a state of panic trying to enter a short story contest to win the prize money in order to keep the lights on in my home.

Although my seat is a contest between Labour and the Lib Dems it could well make the difference between a Labour and a Tory government at the next election. In terms of international development this choice is a very clear one.

Peace as a goal is an ideal which will not be contested by any government or nation not even the most belligerent.

This battle for 'common-sense' gun control laws pits emotion and passion against logic and reason. All too often in such a contest logic loses. So expect more meaningless if not harmful 'gun control' legislation. Good news - if you're a crook.