WASHINGTON -- It is nearly axiomatic that presidential contests tend to shine a harsh light on conservative Christians -- inasmuch as they are viewed as the Republican Party's base and are, therefore, deemed fair game.

Comments about recent events in Baltimore following the death of Freddie Gray provide a glimpse at perhaps one of our greatest challenges -- perception.

WASHINGTON -- The life of the wife of a presidential candidate can sometimes be like the government. Taxing.

Here we go. If you're a woman who might prefer someone other than Hillary Clinton as the next president of the United States, you're a self-loathing, anti-woman traitor.

WASHINGTON -- Americans, perhaps more than anyone, worship the future and resent the past.

This is never truer than during a political season. It doesn't matter whether the past (meaning all of four years ago) trumps the present -- or whether the future carries a whiff of embers and smoke -- we gallop into tomorrow like a dog who mastered the screen door latch, and find little worthy of regard in yesterday.

"As we asked ourselves how we could have gotten the story wrong ..."

Thus read a Rolling Stone editor's note attached to a post-mortem story on the false story it published last fall about an alleged gang rape by members of University of Virginia's Phi Kappa Psi fraternity.

WASHINGTON -- The new tell-all, "The Residence," featuring intimate anecdotes collected from past and current White House staff members, is absolutely delicious -- and utterly lacking in nutritious content.

For a variety of reasons, I gave up alcohol Jan. 4.

I have your attention, don't I?

The apparently intentional downing of a Germanwings airliner by the co-pilot has us riveted, as commercial plane crashes usually do.

WASHINGTON -- I'm standing in the Starbucks line behind 10 other sleepyheads waiting to order my tall skinny cappuccino, otherwise known as a shot of coffee described as I wish it to be.