The United States owes a federal shield law not only to American journalists but to journalists around the world. Passage of such a law is urgently needed. By finally allowing the media to protect the anonymity of confidential sources, Congress would do more than close a fissure in U.S. press freedoms: It would also help curtail the destructive behavior that current U.S. prosecutorial habits are inspiring globally.

The following editorial appeared in Wednesday's Washington Post:

A report from the Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute does a good job of pointing out the deficiencies of the Multiethnic Placement Act (MEPA), the law governing transracial adoptions and foster care assignments. Despite the law's passage in 1994, African American children continue to be disproportionately represented in the foster care system and stay in public care longer than white children. The requirement that states recruit foster and adoptive parents who reflect the diversity of the children who need homes has been virtually ignored thanks to inadequate funding. But the New York-based organization's call to remedy these problems by junking the prohibition against routinely using race as a factor in placements is wrong.

The following editorial appeared in the Kansas City Star on Monday:

The suicide rate among troops in the active-duty Army -- the only service that releases such statistics -- is worrisome and demands greater attention.

The central feature of American government, the one that made the United States "exceptional" and preserved our freedoms for more than 200 years, is in the process of being destroyed. The enemy is not in Iraq or the hills of Pakistan but in Washington and in cities and towns throughout the United States.

For Barack Obama in June 2008, Ulysses Grant in April 1865 offers a useful role model.

This editorial appeared in Tuesday's Los Angeles Times:

The Fulbright scholarships that were stripped from seven students living in Gaza because Israel's blockade prevented them from leaving to take part in the prestigious program have now been reinstated. But the United States and Israel should still be red-faced. At a time when both countries place enormous emphasis on cultivating and nurturing Palestinian moderates, denying young people access to Western education is unbelievably shortsighted.

From the Chicago Tribune on Tuesday, June 3, 2008:

Iran's bull rush into the nuclear club is a popular rallying point for Iranian national pride. If there's much of an argument among the mullahs and top officials about the wisdom of continuing in the face of three sets of U.N. Security Council sanctions, there's not much public evidence of it.

Bud McFarlane served in the Marines and, years later, as President Reagan's national security adviser. So I listened up when, at a Foundation for Defense of Democracies workshop on energy security, he said of Saudi Arabia's oil facilities: "Any self-respecting suicide-bomber could take them out. Any artillery man could do it, too."