Most of us want both peaceful, secure communities and a fundamental respect for civil liberties. Let's look at four highly visible, often controversial elements of law enforcement's quest to ensure safety and security at public gatherings.

The big problem -- not just for Obama, but for America -- is that there simply aren't a whole lot of good options in Syria. So I thought it'd be worthwhile to go through them, in the spirit of Bush's "decider room."

Some weeks, I sit down to write this weekly wrapup, and find that there isn't that much to talk about, because nothing much happened that particular week. This isn't one of those weeks.

War and violence are fool's options. It is well past time Americans accept this truth and incorporate it not just into our policies and culture, but also into our national soul.

It is not only pointless but can actually be counter-productive to wildly speculate on who is responsible for the terrorist attack on the Boston Marathon. Domestic, foreign, religious, secular, or just purely insane: we really have no idea why this attack happened right now.

One of the parents frantically trying to track down her children after the Boston Marathon bombing was Mary Lou Monaco....

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