NEW YORK -- It is hard to think largely about the sweep of events when one is reacting instantaneously to breaking ... tweets.

NEW YORK -- It is bracing, not to mention annoying, laughable and obnoxious, to hear a White House press secretary lectured by a Russian journalist about the parameters of free expression American-style.

NEW YORK -- While sorting through the perennial lip-pursing tempest about a certain word in Mark Twain's "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" -- the "N-word," as we now say it -- I turned for inspiration to the master himself.

"The difference between the almost-right word and the right word is ... the difference between the lightning bug and the lightning," Twain wrote.

NEW YORK -- In a political culture where moderation is the new heresy, centrism is fast becoming the new black.

NEW YORK -- In the accelerating debate about airport pat-downs that feel like a clumsy third date and body scans that border on Peeping Tom shows, its hard to find a sane place to land.

NEW YORK -- Despite its considerable gains in the midterm elections, the GOP has a problem looming in the margins named Sarah Palin.

NEW YORK -- Two words: Narrative, schmarrative.