Can a movie actually convince you to support torture? Can a movie really persuade you that "fracking" -- a process used to drill for natural gas -- is a danger to the environment?

On a quiet August day I lost someone I loved very much. Her name was Joan and she was a mother to me for 15 years. Her death was sudden and unexpected, and there were still so many things she wanted to do: Learn to play the piano, live in Paris, see the Pacific Ocean.

Last week's massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, appears to have at least temporarily changed the debate on gun control and opened the door to new restrictions.

President Obama's poignant speech at Sunday's interfaith vigil in Newtown, Connecticut, set the tone for our mourning.

There are a lot of things I am sick of hearing after massacres such as the one at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut.

Police reports are still coming in, and we are only beginning to grasp the scale of this tragedy. Friends are describing their panic as they try to reach their children in schools that are on lockdown.

Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder's stunning decision to sign a right-to-work law poses the question: Are these anti-union statutes, which make illegal any union contract that requires union membership or payment of dues a condition of employment, the future?

"Fox News is usually credited with spreading the panic about this war on Christmas. Bill O'Reilly talks about atheists and left-wing loons ruining Christmas for children."

IBM, one of America's largest companies, shook the employee compensation world when it announced recently that it would contribute only once every December to its employees' 401(k) accounts.

Michigan is the latest 'Rust Belt' state to approve a right-to-work law. It's the latest sign that organized labor's influence is waning in the U.S. Some analysts blame heavy tactics by big business; others say it's just politics.

Despite the election cycle rhetoric surrounding immigration, which would make it seem like the rest of the world is swarming across U.S. borders like ants to a picnic, gobbling up our resources, the reality is quite different.

It's time to pay up, America. The era of free news is rapidly coming to a close.

'"Haven't we at least learned this much: In many restaurant kitchens in America, it is immigrants who work up a sweat making lunch for the rest of us."

We could learn a thing or two by looking at what Prohibition brought to the United States: an increase in consumption of hard liquor, organized crime taking over legal production and distribution and widespread anger with the federal government.

It was a horrifying front-page photo in every sense of the word.

Bob Costas' "Sunday Night Football" halftime commentary supporting gun control sparked a Fox News Channel debate Monday on whether NBC should fire him and a Twitter storm involving Ted Nugent, Rosie O'Donnell, Herman Cain and many more.

Who could resist the touching story of the New York policeman who, seeing a homeless man sitting barefoot in the cold, walked into a shoe store and bought him a new pair of all-weather boots?

Siri, Mars, Mac and Luna. I'm not talking Apple products or planetary terms. These are baby names.

Most officials in Washington are dreading the consequences of falling off the fiscal cliff.

Who is Grover Norquist? He's a private citizen, a conservative lobbyist, the author of the Taxpayer's Protection Pledge and president of Americans for Tax Reform.

David Frum: Carbon dioxide emissions worldwide are at record levels. To strike a blow against climate change, U.S. should enact a carbon tax, Frum says. He says it would provide revenue, allow for middle-class tax relief, spark economy.

Have hospital costs climbed too high?

Here's a tip for the president: The time is ripe for the first woman to head the agency.

Dean Obeidallah argues that we, the people, "killed Twinkies."

Should marijuana be legalized?