War is just a racket... I believe in adequate defense at the coastline and nothing else.

I'm thankful for Sarah Palin's vice presidential bid which taught us that Alaska is not in a box off the coast of California.

Thanks to the Interstate Highway System it is now possible to travel across the country from coast to coast without seeing anything.

It's been quite a roller coaster ride but I've grown and learned a lot about myself. The greatest thing is being able to interact with fans and touch people's lives... for that I give thanks.

From coast to coast the FBI and Securities and Exchange Commission have ensnared people not only at hedge funds but at technology and pharmaceutical companies consulting and law firms government agencies and even a major stock exchange.

I consulted a Chinese herbalist and spent two weeks on an island off the coast of Zanzibar. I was away from any kind of contemporary technology.

Am I coasting on some early success? Yeah. It was a good lucky break for me. But I would rather earn my way back again than simply conform to what people are expecting.

Because the sad fact is that the Enron Corporation and others manipulated with unfortunately great effect the energy market in the West Coast starting in 2000.

I'm definitely bicoastal but I have to say it's easier to live in New York than in L.A. I feel like people respect other people's space a bit more here.

Since I was a kid I've had an absolute obsession with particular kinds of American music. Mississippi Delta blues of the Thirties Chicago blues of the Fifties West Coast music of the mid-Sixties - but I'd never really touched on dark Americana.

I don't know why but I've always been a sucker for roller coasters in movies.

Now that I'm a mom I'm way more laid back. If you come into my house don't look for a coaster. Forget it. There is not a piece of furniture in my house now that is too precious.

We've done it in intelligence sharing and certain elements of security. There were parts of the department in fact that worked very well in Katrina like the Coast Guard and TSA.

It's self-effacing it's hard-luck the shtetl stories. All those Coasters things are an amalgam of Yiddish and black humor.

I always thought the biggest failing of Americans was their lack of irony. They are very serious there! Naturally there are exceptions... the Jewish Italian and Irish humor of the East Coast.

Never in our country's history have we witnessed a natural disaster that has impacted so many people in such a wide area. In fact as of the writing of this column millions of people along the Gulf Coast have been displaced from their homes in a period of only five days.

The people of South and Central Texas and the Coastal Bend need jobs they need health care they need water infrastructure improvements they need a quality education and they need the resources to keep our borders safe and secure.