Growing up in a violent home is a terrifying and traumatic experience that can affect every aspect of a child's life, growth, and development.

The tendency is to think if you are a professional woman, it's because you've turned your back on the traditional side. The tendency is not to recognize that we can excel as professionals without giving up our identity of being mother, wife and homemaker.

People show surprise that I have interests outside my political career. There is subtle surprise, for example, that I would be interested in a recipe.

Even though some in our government may claim that civil liberties must be compromised in order to protect the public, we must be wary of what we are giving up in the name of fighting terrorism.

It's like being at the kids' table at Thanksgiving - you can put your elbows on it, you don't have to talk politics... no matter how old I get, there's always a part of me that's sitting there.

Re-election comes every six years, which explains why I spend so much time on Twitter. If you're an obscure judge whose name ID hovers between infinitesimal and zilch, it's political malpractice to neglect social media. I'm probably the tweetingest judge in America, which, admittedly, is like being the tallest Munchkin in Oz.

Two hundred years ago, our Founding Fathers gave us a democracy. It was based upon the simple, yet noble, idea that government derives its validity from the consent of the governed.

Even if we don't know it or aren't aware of it, politics and philosophy are really what make our up lives.