Two weeks after the press partied hearty with President Barack Obama at the White House Correspondents' Association dinner, the administration admitted that federal authorities had secretly combed through phone records for dozens of Associated Press journalists. If ever there has been a reason to abolish this embarrassing display of fake camaraderie between journalists and the government officials... Read more.

History is stuff they never told you. Take Clara Barton, who founded the American Red Cross after her humanitarian work in the Civil War — the crisis that cast her character. Everybody loves the American Red Cross this week in devastated Oklahoma City. Hail to them for showing up to give blood and emergency aid to thousands whose lives and houses were strewn all over the sky by an epic tornado.... Read more.

My wife sometimes talks to her clothes as if they were people. "Well. You haven't been out in a while," she'll say in late spring, looking at a pair of open-toed shoes, cooing at them as she takes them from the floor of her closet. This is not, by itself, evidence of a slipping grip on reality. My pickup truck is named "Evangeline." Plenty of people have involved conversations... Read more.

ORLANDO, Fla. — The room is very large and full of the usual exercise equipment. There are treadmills and stationary bikes, weight machines and even a climbing wall. About a dozen chairs are scattered around the edges of the room. As I enter, six people are sitting there. They have four legs between them. There are usually children around. The first time I came here, shyly watching from the... Read more.