I had been a reporter for 15 years when I set out to write my first novel. I knew how to research an article or profile a subject - skills that I assumed would be useless when it came to fiction. It was from my imagination that the characters in my story would emerge.

We're in an emergency situation. The United States has become an absolutely terrifying country and I would hope that I could participate in some way in stopping the horror and the brutality.

But inspiration? - That's when you come home from abroad and are asked: Well have you found inspiration? - and fortunately you haven't. But the impressions sink in of course and may emerge later: None of us has invented the house that was done many thousands of years ago.

I get so frustrated when people tell me it's unrealistic to create an eight-month emergency savings fund or have money saved for a home down payment or pay off their $5 000 credit card balance.

Since the departure of good old-fashioned entertainers the re-emergence of somebody who wants to be an entertainer has unfortunately become a synonym for camp. I don't think I'm camper than any other person who felt at home on stage and felt more at home on stage than he did offstage.

Moreover health center services save money and lives by treating diseases before they become chronic conditions require hospital care or require a trip to the emergency room.

Emergency health care for illegal aliens along the southwestern border is already costing area hospitals $200 million a year with perhaps another $100 million in extended care costs.

Most illegals are without health insurance and when these workers need emergency healthcare the American taxpayer gets stuck with the bill.

In addition California spends nearly $1 billion a year in Medi-Cal services for an average of 780 000 illegal immigrants a month over and above emergency health services.

Community health centers do a great deal with limited resources. They provide critical medical care services to many who would otherwise have no other place to go or would end up in an emergency room.

Look if you have somebody who doesn't have health insurance who doesn't have a doctor or dentist and in order to deal with their cold or flu or dental problem they go to an emergency room - in general that visit will cost ten times more than walking into a community health center.

I am not against all forms of high-tech medicine. Drugs and surgeries have a secure place in the treatment of serious health conditions. But modern American medicine treats almost every health condition as if it were an emergency.

Great emergencies and crises show us how much greater our vital resources are than we had supposed.

The Leader of the Opposition's constitutional obligation - the obligation to Parliament - it's the reason we did the merger! - is to make sure Canadians have an alternative for government.

Fascism should rightly be called Corporatism as it is the merger of corporate and government power.

A good leader can engage in a debate frankly and thoroughly knowing that at the end he and the other side must be closer and thus emerge stronger. You don't have that idea when you are arrogant superficial and uninformed.

I've been saying for a couple of years now that people need to let God out of the Sunday morning box that He doesn't want to just be with you for an hour or two on Sunday morning and then put back in His box to sit there until you have an emergency but He wants to invade your Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday and Sunday.