If you think Independence Day is America's defining holiday, think again. Thanksgiving deserves that title, hands-down.
We believe. We believe in our destiny as a nation. We believe we have been called to do good, to spread the blessings of liberty and encourage the sense of trust upon which free societies depend.
Every one of our greatest national treasures, our liberty, enterprise, vitality, wealth, military power, global authority, flow from a surprising source: our ability to give thanks.
That said, ID does not qualify as science because it gives us nothing to test or measure. Science requires replicable tests involving measurable variables.
Sure, science involves trial and error. Scientists refine theories each day. But as they do, they help us grasp more clearly the wonders of the world and the universe.
Pet lovers know that animals sometimes understand us better than we do, and the annals of human sin and desire provide plenty of stories to drive the point home.
The business of peace requires more than showing up with paint brushes, foodstuffs and an oil pipeline or two.
The secret of learning to be sick is this: Illness doesn't make you less of what you were. You are still you.
Somewhere near you, somebody right now is trying to help the indigent and poor - providing food, shelter, clothing or simple kindness.
Yet, it ought to be obvious that good music generally occupies a higher plane that mere politics. Great writers can express moods through melody and capture experiences we share most powerfully - love, lust, longing joy, rage, fear triumph, yearning and confusion.
To have faith is to believe in truth, believe that truth confers special power on those lucky enough to get a little insight, and to know in our hearts that all these things come from God, which is why we should never get too cocky about our successes.
Voting is a right best exercised by people who have taken time to learn about the issues.
The art of being sick is not the same as the art of getting well.