While browsing recently in the fiction section of the Adams Avenue Book Store in Normal Heights I came across a book about Ayn Rand, although the book I pulled from the shelf was not fiction, but was leaning against “Atlas Shrugged.”

"If we know a nation is capable of enduring continuous discussion, we know that it is capable of practicing with equanimity continuous tolerance." — Walter Bagehot, "Physics and Politics" (1872)

There is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success, than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things.

Some Republicans have no shame, especially Sens. John McCain and Lindsey Graham. The senators’ attacks on Ambassador Susan Rice over Benghazi are relentless. Why, because of something she said on "Meet the Press"? Really?

In mid-summer I wrote an op-ed in which I said Barack Obama would be reelected president and it wouldn’t be close.

I am a confessing Christian, but understand people have a right to their own faith — or the absence thereof.

The Boston Globe reported this week that during the 10-year ownership of the Red Sox by John Henry, Tom Werner, Larry Lucchino and their partners, the team has contributed more than $52 million to charity, the most by any team in baseball, and probably in all professional sports.

On April 6, 1992, the first major league game was played at Oriole Park at Camden Yards, ushering in a new era for Baltimore and its beloved O’s. From the day it opened, more than 46 million people have seen the O’s play at Camden.

Nick Canepa of the U-T San Diego wrote a column last week on the need to change the makeup of the San Diego Padres’ front office, saying whoever ends up owning the Padres should do a clean sweep. Canepa often gets it right, but this time he didn’t, because his idea is absurd.

There are four candidates for mayor of San Diego: City Councilman Carl DeMaio, District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis, Rep. Bob Filner and state Assemblyman Nathan Fletcher.

Justice triumphed in a San Diego courtroom on Monday. Madison High student Chase Knox was fully vindicated by Judge Timothy Taylor’s ruling against the California Interscholastic Federation-San Diego Section, finding it acted with impunity by taking away Madison’s 2010 football championship, the team Knox quarterbacked, on false accusations Knox was an illegal resident.

Most Americans knew Mike Wallace for his work on "60 Minutes," and because of him and his remarkably talented colleagues, that hour on Sunday nights became the most important hour in network television history.

Recently The New York Times ran a lengthy Sunday article on Gloria Steinem, “A Woman Like No Other.” Having known her since 1969, I posted a statement and a link to the Times story on Facebook, saying, among things, that on the issue of women’s liberation, no one spoke with greater moral clarity than Gloria.

The former governor of Massachusetts, Michael Dukakis, came to San Diego last weekend with his remarkable wife, Kitty Dukakis. They didn’t come for the weather, which is what most San Diegans think when someone comes to visit. (Oh, it rained Saturday.)

Barack Obama took the presidential oath of office Jan. 20, 2009. The challenges he inherited on that historic occasion were as great as any that a president has faced, including Abraham Lincoln and Franklin D. Roosevelt. Any assessment of Obama’s presidency not accounting for those challenges would be incomplete and, more telling, dishonest.

"If the only prayer you ever say in your entire life is thank you, it will be enough." — Meister Eckhardt

On Thanksgiving, I arose before 6 a.m., pushed a button on our automatic coffee maker, put a slice of Dudley’s Julian Nut Bread in the toaster, and went out to our driveway to collect The New York Times, Los Angeles Times and The San Diego Union-Tribune.

The world has changed. It has changed utterly.

A few years back The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints sought membership in the San Diego County Ecumenical Council, an organization of more than 100 Christian churches. The petition for membership was received while I was council president.

In the summer of 2000, while on a flight home from Denver, I sat next to San Diego Mayor Susan Golding. The mayor had come to Denver at my invitation to meet with members of Colorado's business and political establishment and to witness the city's many achievements, not least a new $100 million downtown library, as well as Denver International Airport, Coors Field, the Pepsi Center (home to the NBA Nuggets and NHL Avalanche), and a new Invesco Field at Mile High (then under construction).