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" The days of the Pentagon Papers debates seem long past, when a sudden transparency yielded insight into fights over war and peace and freedom and security; the transparency afforded by Twitter and Facebook yields insights that extend no further than a lawmaker's boundless narcissism and a culture's pitiless prurience. "

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" Americans sometimes ask what the government does and where their tax money goes. Among other things, it pays for all kinds of invisible but essential safety nets and life belts and guardrails that are useless right up until the day they are priceless. "

Nancy Gibbs

Government

Safety

Money

" All our efforts to guard and guide our children may just get in the way of the one thing they need most from us: to be deeply loved yet left alone so they can try a new skill, new slang, new style, new flip-flops. So they can trip a few times, make mistakes, cross them out, try again, with no one keeping score. "

" As a candidate, Obama disdained the game of politics, a self-conscious contrast to all the tireless political athletes named Clinton. "

" Accidents at power plants are bad enough. But a leak from a bioreactor could be worse, since bacteria can learn new tricks when you're not looking. "

" In design as in life, smart can also mean wise, kind, inspiring - and cost-effective. And that has a charm all its own. "

" On a normal day, we value heroism because it is uncommon. On Sept. 11, we valued heroism because it was everywhere. "

" 'Sesame Street's' genius lies in finding gentle ways to talk about hard things - death, divorce, danger - in terms that children understand and accept. "

" All great rebellions are born of private acts of civil disobedience that inspire rebel bands to plot together. "

" It's the experts in adolescent development who wax most emphatic about the value of family meals, for it's in the teenage years that this daily investment pays some of its biggest dividends. "

" There are many things that matter much more than an editor's gender in shaping the direction of the leadership. "

" Even if it wasn't always morning in America during the years of his presidency, Reagan's eagerness to insist that it was tapped into a longing among voters. They didn't want to picture themselves turning down their thermostats and buttoning up their cardigans. They wanted to strut again. Reagan opened his arms and said, 'Walk this way.' "

" Modesty means admitting the possibility of error, subsuming the self for the good of the whole, remaining open to surprise and the gifts that only failure can bring. There are many ways to practice it. Try taking up golf. Or making your own bagels. Or raising a teenager. "

" High achievers, we imagine, were wired for greatness from birth. But then you have to wonder why, over time, natural talent seems to ignite in some people and dim in others. "

" Once a conflict has dragged on for a decade, most people are tired of war - and the troubles that flow from it. "

" I would like to see every newspaper and every magazine have a network of bureaus all over the world, gathering news. "

" Years later, nothing makes me more grateful as a parent than my daughters' encounters with classroom wizards. "

" We've seen what happens when it serves a president's interest to flaunt his faith - which is almost inevitably does, since every poll affirms that Americans want their leader to submit to some higher power. "

" Charlie Rangel was writing laws on our taxes as chair of the Ways and Means Committee while somehow neglecting to pay his own. "

" While many alien species are harmless, others pose expensive threats to seas and fields and forests. "

" There's something very Nixonian about the idea of keeping an enemy's list. "

" We are bombarded with reasons to stay inside: we're afraid of mosquitoes because of West Nile and grass because of pesticides and sun because of cancer and sunscreen because of vitamin-D deficiency. "

" Decision making in a democracy depends above all on knowledge and not just the intel available to presidents and policymakers. "

" On the court, Jason Collins is not a huge basketball star, but he has already claimed his place in civil rights history as the first openly gay athlete to play in one of the four major U.S. sports leagues. "

" A president can't go to every memorial service. "

" Inflicting emotional distress has typically been treated as a civil action. How 'substantial' does the distress have to be for it to turn criminal? "

" Harriet Tubman and Sojourner Truth were slaves by birth, freedom fighters by temperament. "

" Whatever people thought the first time they held a portable phone the size of a shoe in their hands, it was nothing like where we are now, accustomed to having all knowledge at our fingertips. "

" I'm sentimental about many things: the lumpy feel of a baby's unused feet, the metallic smell of the air before the first snow, the last scene in 'It's a Wonderful Life.' But Valentine's Day leaves me cold. "

Nancy Gibbs

Baby

Day

" Today's kids aren't taking up arms against their parents; they're too busy texting them. "

" A good president needs a big comfort zone. He should be able to treat enemies as opportunities, appear authentic in joy and grief, stay cool under the hot lights. "