I spent my time trying to understand grand jury procedure - a topic about which I never before had the slightest interest.

A grand jury hears only one side - that of the prosecutor.

In 1994 the U.S. Court of Appeals decided in the case of Oliver North to permit the release of grand jury evidence, because it had already been so thoroughly leaked.

The grand jury's job is not to weigh the evidence from both sides; it is only to decide whether there is enough evidence on one side to bring a person to trial.

Before they got vengeful, conservatives had some useful points to make about welfare. Government 'help' is too often guilt-assuaging gesture. It creates layers of wasteful bureaucracy. Too much help of the wrong sort creates a culture of dependency that swamps our ability to provide.

Calculating how much carbon is absorbed by which forests and farms is a tricky task, especially when politicians do it.