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.

I danced a little as a kid here in Canada: in Ottawa at the Elite Dance Studio and at the Top Hat Dance School in Cornwall where I grew up. So I had some experience of having to learn routines.

I didn't go to university or get a degree, but I hired somebody as a mentor - and that I considered my university education.

I had a teacher in art school who said something about the only works he really enjoyed seeing or found much in were works where he had a sense that a discovery was made in the course of making this object. I like to hold to that as my marching orders.

I did the traditional thing with falling in love with words, reading books and underlining lines I liked and words I didn't know. It was something I always did.