The U.S. economy is improving, yet Congress seems still to be in the grip of the delirium that shrinking the deficit in the near term is still a matter of paramount urgency.

Please. Let's stop focusing on the overpaid, tormented young man who last week revealed the National Security Administration's Power Point Plan for Total Electronic World Domination.

Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., a former chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, is hopping mad. Sensenbrenner considers himself the father of the Patriot Act, the 2001 law that gave the federal government new powers to investigate potential terrorists. But he thinks the National Security Agency's program to collect records on every telephone call in the country goes well beyond what he intended.

Now here's a scenario for a perfect election: Iran's turbaned tyrant, or the "Supreme Leader," has to replace the incumbent president, who is term-limited and is fighting for a bigger portion of wealth and power. So candidates line up to run. But some of those candidates are not favored by the Supreme Leader because they, too, are asking for a bigger piece of the pie.

The following editorial appeared in the Chicago Tribune on Tuesday, June 11:

President Obama's response to the troubling news of indiscriminate government collection of communication information was meant to be reassuring: The NSA is operating under supervision by all three branches of government, he assured us.

The following editorial appeared in the Baltimore Sun on Tuesday, June 11:

It's time. It's time for President Obama to live up to his own words. It's time for Congress to do its job. It's time to contract the ever-expanding national security state. And it's time to roll back the Patriot Act.

In the discussion of how to boost the education and skill levels of the American workforce, one central issue is rarely addressed: the gap between male and female achievement. The reality is that the slowdown in U.S. educational gains is predominantly a male affair, and one that drags down the overall competitiveness of our workforce and workers' ability to land (or create) good jobs.

Congress should not cut federal nutritional assistance. I know. I myself have received needed assistance.

The Pew Research Center reports that mom is the top breadwinner - or the sole breadwinner - in 40 percent of homes with children under 18, and we are talking, again, about how we balance our work and our families.

The following editorial appeared in the Baltimore Sun on Monday, June 10:

Malibu, California's most fashionable resident is moving. Today, Barbie officially put her coastal Dreamhouse on the market and is packing up her three-story pink palace. ... Over the next few months, Barbie will embark on a worldwide tour to find a new dream home. - Mattel press release, Feb. 6

Since President Richard Nixon's visit to China in February 1972, American presidents have hoped that building personal rapport with Chinese leaders would strengthen bilateral ties and win political points at home.

The following editorial appeared in the Los Angeles Times on Tuesday, June 11:

President Obama's response to the troubling news of indiscriminate government collection of communication information was meant to be reassuring: The NSA is operating under supervision by all three branches of government, he assured us.

It's the time of year when our attention turns to graduates and their commencement speakers. But at a lunch with a friend last Friday, our conversation was about the often unacknowledged: the teachers for whom we're grateful.

The following editorial appeared in the Philadelphia Inquirer on Tuesday, June 11:

It will not be with guns.

The following editorial appeared in the Chicago Tribune on Monday, June 10:

The following editorial appeared in the Los Angeles Times on Tuesday, June 11:

If you want to understand why tens of thousands of young urban Turks have been demonstrating against their government, you need look no further than the tragic plight of Kemal Guruz.

After 9/11, there was a widespread expectation of many more terrorist attacks on the United States. So far that hasn't happened. We haven't escaped entirely unscathed (see Boston Marathon, bombing of), but on the whole we have been a lot safer than most security experts, including me, expected. In light of the current controversy over the National Security Agency's monitoring of telephone calls and emails, it is worthwhile to ask: Why is that?

As Americans await U.S. Supreme Court rulings this month on two same-sex marriage cases, June - the traditional month for weddings and pride parades - gives gay people the chance to reflect: How have their own lives and views changed since a Hawaii court ruling first thrust marriage equality onto the national stage 20 years ago? And what might a fully legal marriage mean to them?

Google's launch of its dazzling Internet-connected eyewear, which it calls Glass, has been so understated that it's tempting to mistake this wearable computer for just another cool plaything from Silicon Valley.

The following editorial appeared in the Kansas City Star on Monday, June 10:

As an economist, an immigrant and a scholar of the effects of immigration on the U.S. economy, I find that few pieces of legislation have engaged me more than the proposal for comprehensive immigration reform that the full Senate will take up this week.

Because you should never abandon the baseball team you were raised with, I am a Houston Astros fan. This hasn't been easy most years. This year it's particularly difficult, though things have been better lately, especially last weekend's four-game sweep over the highly paid Anaheim Alberts.

There may be lots of questions yet to be answered about Southern California Edison's permanent shutdown of its San Onofre nuclear plant, but here are a couple about which there's no doubt.

The following editorial appeared in the Chicago Tribune on Sunday, June 9:

Concerns have been raised about the plight of Sarah Murnaghan, a 10-year-old girl dying of cystic fibrosis and awaiting a lung transplant in Philadelphia. I would like to correct some of the misconceptions about the lung allocation system and how it pertains to children, and offer some suggestions.

We pay a great deal of attention to the actions of Muslim radicals, and when an extremist does something terrible, we always hear the complaints of those who want to hear more loudly from Muslim moderates. So, it's important that everyone - Muslims, Jews, Christians and people who hold other beliefs - hear about an event that unfolded a few weeks ago at Auschwitz.

The following editorial appeared in the San Jose Mercury News on Monday, June 10:

The appointment of Susan Rice as national security adviser sends an important signal about the kind of foreign policy President Obama wants to pursue for the remainder of his second term: activist, assertive, occasionally even pugnacious. With three years to shape a legacy in world affairs, Obama wants to play offense, not defense.

(Emergency revisions to conference-planning guidelines for the Internal Revenue Service.)

The following editorial appeared in the Miami Herald on Friday, June 7:

Some readers may be surprised to learn that although PETA is best known for its stunts, provocative ads and "rather go naked than wear fur" demonstrations, we have bought stock in dozens of companies as part of our effort to eliminate practices that cause animals to suffer. PETA purchases or accepts donations of small amounts of stock in companies to gain access to annual meetings and similar events, which allows us to appeal to the corporate leadership, board members and other stockholders and submit shareholder resolutions.

With his decision to elevate Susan Rice to become his national security adviser and the nomination of Samantha Power as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, President Obama is not simply rewarding the loyalty of two women who have backed him from the start. Nor is he merely increasing the diversity of his foreign policy team. Rather, their promotions hint at a new source of fireworks in a growing foreign policy battle in the Obama administration. Liberal hawks and doves in the White House and the Democratic Party are struggling for hearts and minds over whether it makes sense to intervene in Syria and to attack Iran.

The Manhattan Project, the secret research mission to develop an atomic weapon ahead of Germany and bring an end to World War II, was one of the 20th century's most ambitious feats of science and engineering. And one of its darkest moments.

John Lennon once wrote that "Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans," and the same thing could be said about tinkering in America. Long thought of as an activity for old crackpots squirreling around in their basements, tinkering can be aimless, peripheral, failure-ridden and chaotic. But that's a good thing.

I cannot write this the way I want. Doing so would invade the privacy of too many people. But I can't be silent, either.

On Monday, in a Florida courtroom, George Zimmerman goes on trial for the murder of Trayvon Martin.

A revealing thing happened in the grief-filled days that followed the massacre of helpless children and their teachers at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn.

The following editorial appeared in the Los Angeles Times on Friday, June 7:

Being a pro-immigration conservative is a little like being a pro-life liberal: You're relegated to social Siberia. Your own tribe tends to view you with suspicion if not downright hostility, and your natural enemies still hate your guts.

"The Soviets put guns before butter, but we put almost everything before guns." - Margaret Thatcher, January 1976

Iran's presidential election is again inviting speculation about which candidate can nudge the Islamic Republic toward moderation and pragmatism. Such conjectural games miss the point that the theocratic state is defined by an ideology that demonizes the West and relies on conspiracies to explain global affairs. The guardians of the Islamist state are emphatic in their belief that America harbors an enduring animosity not just toward their state but to the Muslim world. Its next president, drawn from the ranks of regime loyalists, is unlikely to temper this noxious political culture.

The following editorial appeared in the Los Angeles Times on Thursday, June 6:

The following editorial appeared in the Los Angeles Times on Thursday, June 6:

President Obama and China's new leader, Xi Jinping, convene this week in Rancho Mirage, Calif., for their first face-to-face discussion as presidents. It is a summit without precedent in Sino-American relations. Both leaders agreed to informal discussions very different from the highly structured agendas generally associated with presidential meetings.