The backlash against Big Government is an encouraging sign of a growing resistance to the mission creep of federal power.

There are hundreds of fine journalists who regularly inform us of what is happening in the world around us; and innumerable commentators who provide intelligent and objective insight on public policy matters.

It is difficult, if not impossible, to argue that laws written in the 1970s are adequate for today's intelligence challenges.

Looking down the road, space exploration and the benefits it yields - in medicine and information technology - should not be overlooked.

Every time I give an interview, I seem to offend somebody in my family, usually my mother.

My first husband, John Barry, was a composer. I couldn't believe that this sophisticated, talented genius chose me and not any of the other girls. I was so flattered, so excited, so in love with him. Of course, my parents were horrified, as he'd been married once and had a daughter with the au pair girl.

I grew up in India during the 1960s and '70s in a meat-eating Hindu family. Only my mother and my grandparents were vegetarians. The rest of us enjoyed eating - on special occasions - chicken or fish or mutton.

For my parents' generation, the idea was not that marriage was about some kind of idealized, romantic love; it was a partnership. It's about creating family; it's about creating offspring. Indian culture is essentially much more of a 'we' culture. It's a communal culture where you do what's best for the community - you procreate.