The anti-gay American Family Association has largely gone after corporations that have the means to fight back, but it crossed the line in late 2012 when it chose a new and more defenseless kind of victim: children.

We live in a world in which Americans are instantly transformed into Idols in a mad crush of switchboard-jamming telephone calls; where anybodies become somebodies overnight, simply because they land in an outrageous story in Us Weekly. We've confused heroics with histrionics.

The film industry and its distribution arms are facile at delivering whatever message it wants to get across. Surely, Warner Brothers could mount a campaign on behalf of gun control laws.

Today's teen suicide epidemic speaks both to the depth of the crisis and our failed efforts to curb it.

If there's one thing that Americans have demonstrated over the past decade, it is resilience -- an ability to bicker and cohere, to bellow and console, to raise fists and join hands.

If there's one positive thing that came from Amy Winehouse's tragic death, it's that, perhaps, the shocking inevitability of her passing scared our kids a bit.

Perhaps Shakespeare nailed it when he defined love as "a smoke made with the fume of sighs." You don't need a doctorate to see what the Bard was saying: that love is ephemeral and elusive, and can render us speechless. Maybe that's why Americans often don't see it.

Reality is a lot more long-winded than 140-character-driven narratives.

Letterman will be forgiven his hanky-panky. Because, in the end, what people (and, should it go this far, juries) admire most is straight talk, and that is precisely what Dave dished out lately.

Blame Kanye West, Joe Wilson and Serena Williams for your rambunctious child.

The hard-charging candidates currently seeking the presidency have barely touched on the subject of gay rights.

What happens when society's anxiety about education begins to engulf our children?

Pointed social commentary can be found as easily on the big screen as in newspapers or online. And, as with the Iraq war, there's no need to wait until the dust settles.

Politicians are "on message"; kids are distracted; celebs live by their own rules. What do they all have in common? They're not listening.

Educational videos for toddlers are no substitute for good-quality time with parents, but they also don't fry kids' brains.

Teachers -- good teachers -- can provide that one commodity you won't find in a textbook or a Board of Ed spread sheet: inspiration.

When broadcasters turn every story into a breast-beating spectacle, then how are we really being served by the news?

Amid the poking and prodding, the raised eyebrows and clenched jaw, Bill Clinton simply said he'd tried and failed to prevent 9-11 --and that he was sorry. This is something that our current president has never had the courage to do.

If there's one thing for which we can credit Election '04, it's the way the rancorous squabbling over social issues brought into high relief the legacy we leave our children.

In a stroke of marketing genius, Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos acquires worldwide rights to the popular line of Chia Pet products and begins selling them online under a new name: Hairy Pottery.