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Hearing an African American presidential candidate compare the mild health care reform provisions of the Affordable Care Act to slavery is hyperbole that is worth paying attention to.

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We probably already know how the Republican and Democratic candidates will answer these questions, but it is always good to get their views on the record and let the public see where they stand. This is particularly important because, according the public opinion polls, Americans overwhelmingly support affirmative answers to these questions.

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As we look towards the very real possibility that the next President of the United States will have an opportunity to nominate several Supreme Court justices, it is critically important to focus attention on a judicial virtue that has been neglected of late: Grit, that is, firmness of mind in the face of adversity.

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No American politician who has run for president has survived the media and voter hostility that Hillary Rodham Clinton has. She is clearly in a category all her own. But as voters, there are four Hillary groups Americans fall into -- lovers, haters, those who hate to love her and those who love to hate her.

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These tragic events, 81 percent of which occur in the home, are far more common than the public mass shootings that make national headlines. And yet, this is an aspect of our nation's gun violence epidemic that is all too often ignored.

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The fact that talks haven't produced a solution yet doesn't mean that diplomacy is failing. Real diplomacy -- the kind where everyone has to compromise to get a meaningful agreement -- is just getting started.

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That Netanyahu has been voted into power for the fourth time this past March proves beyond any doubt that Israel has chosen occupation over peace and has normalized the brutal domination of the Palestinian people rather than liberate itself from becoming a modern-day apartheid state.

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This spring, Sikh soldiers serving in the U.S. military marched in New York City at the annual Sikh Parade. The regiment offered an important introspective for Pentagon leadership, and an opportunity to sharpen its strategy against extremism with the power of American ideals.

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In the latest example of the ineptness of the Democratic Party and their supporters, the Democrats lost a chance to win control of the Virginia Senate because their voters failed to show up at the same rates as Republicans.

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If the political pundits would look around, they would even discover a significant number of prominent U.S. democratic socialists at work in a variety of fields. These and many other democratic socialists, among them Bernie Sanders, have played an important role in American life.

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The Islamic State released an official video on Tuesday night that featured militants declaring the Metrojet plane crash an "achievement" and threatening "more attacks" against Russia in response to the country's bombing campaign in Syria.

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How is it that America, supposedly the beacon of freedom and democracy for the rest of the world, has more prisoners than any police state?

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Peace talks that are dominated by American voices, Russian voices, Iranian voices, Saudi voices, may provide the opportunity for a de-escalation and perhaps some kind of ceasefire, but without greater involvement of Syrian society, the talks cannot bring lasting peace.

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Here's an idea for the adults who oversee our public schools: Let's stop beating up schoolchildren, pepper-spraying them, tossing them out of the classroom, and jailing them for doing the normal things kids do.

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At the end of November, delegations from nearly 200 countries will convene for what is billed as the most important climate meeting ever held. A failure to cap carbon emissions worldwide guarantees not just climate shocks, but also instability, insurrection, and warfare.

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Benjamin Netanyahu has backed away from his claim that it was a Palestinian leader, rather than Hitler, who came up with the idea of exterminating the Jews. But Netanyahu's historical chutzpah has always been breathtaking, as I learned years ago when reporting on Israel for 60 Minutes.

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The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment reported last week that the state's teen pregnancy rate was cut in half from 2009 to 2014 thanks to a program called the Colorado Family Planning Initiative.