America's constitutional structure is built on checks and balances. The idea behind these checks and balances is simple: We want interest counteracting interest, ego counteracting ego. We don't want any one person to gain too much power — or any one faction or any one way of thought. Gridlock, for lack of a better word, is good. President Barack Obama, however, has a different idea. He believes... Read more.

This was going to be a different kind of column. My friend Jackie, through a mutual contact, arranged for me to interview 20-year-old Tyler Winkler, a gay student born and raised in North Carolina and going to college there. Tyler and I were going to talk about his home state's constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage and how he felt after the overwhelming majority of his fellow citizens voted... Read more.

Happy Mother's Day to all the other moms out there! Your children have likely bought you a nice card and a gift, maybe some flowers, or perhaps they plan to take you out for a fancy meal to show you how much they love you. Sweet. And just the way it should be. My mom is no longer here, and this holiday is one that makes me sentimental and nostalgic. But for tens of thousands of American mothers, it... Read more.

April inspires romance, war and more poetry than any other month. Actually, April is National Poetry Month. Who knew, but let's see how true. It's when bards come out to word-play and "sing of brooks, of blossoms, birds and bowers: Of April, May, June and July flowers." (Thanks, Robert "carpe diem" Herrick.) The month brought homesickness to Victorian poet Robert Browning, living... Read more.