We got a little waylaid along the way. The whole problem started about 10 years ago with management and legal battles then still trying to make albums while I was doing all of that.

And books that were published in much larger numbers than Selfish Little are hard to find. And publishers who wanted to publish my last few works have them stuck in limbo while new distribution ideas and legal issues and fears are blown away.

The right to a trial is a core principle of the American legal system. Depriving Americans of these essential liberties undermines the Constitution while doing nothing to strengthen our national security.

While there continues to be differences the important point is that all citizens and elected officials use democratic and legal avenues for solving those differences.

Once the attacks occur as we learned on Sept. 11 it is too late. It makes little sense to deprive ourselves of an important and legal means to detect and prevent terrorist attacks while we are still in the middle of a fight to the death with al Qaeda.

While Taliban fighters had an initial claim to protection under the conventions they lost POW status by failing to obey the standards of conduct for legal combatants: wearing uniforms a responsible command structure and obeying the laws of war.

While I support immigration regulated through a legal framework I do not support rewarding those who broke the law to get here.

For a small child there is no division between playing and learning between the things he or she does just for fun and things that are educational. The child learns while living and any part of living that is enjoyable is also play.

Learning while at school that the charge for the education of girls was the same as that for boys and that when they became teachers women received only half as much as men for their services the injustice of this distinction was so apparent.

Being a press secretary is like learning to type: You're hunting and pecking for a while and then you find yourself doing the touch system and don't realize it. You're speaking for the president without ever having to go to him.