A national political campaign is better than the best circus ever heard of with a mass baptism and a couple of hangings thrown in.

Shortly thereafter some friends encouraged me to try out for the Miss South Carolina World beauty pageant. To my surprise I won - and was sent to New York City to compete nationally.

I went to England in the '70s and I was in my early 20s. There was still a residue of that era of being an underclass or colonial. I assume it must have been a more aggressive and prominent attitude 40 years before that because Australia internationally wasn't regarded as having much cultural value. We were a country full of sheep and convicts.

The Senator from Massachusetts has given us ample grounds to doubt the judgment and the attitude he brings to bear on vital issues of national security.

No one's going to be able to operate without a grounding in the basic sciences. Language would be helpful although English is becoming increasingly international. And travel. You have to have a global attitude.

Appropriation is the idea that ate the art world. Go to any Chelsea gallery or international biennial and you'll find it. It's there in paintings of photographs photographs of advertising sculpture with ready-made objects videos using already-existing film.

The question of the value of nationality in art is perhaps unsolvable.

I have for some time urged that a nuclear abolition summit to mark the effective end of the nuclear era be convened in Hiroshima and Nagasaki on the 70th anniversary of the bombings of those cities with the participation of national leaders and representatives of global civil society.

For the past 21 years I've been privileged to be part of an amazing organization called the International Women's Media Foundation.

I think as a Canadian hockey player you go through it in your mind so many times being able to stand on that blue line and hear your national anthem play and being a gold medal champion you dream of that. And then to be able to accomplish that and actually win a gold medal and represent your country its an amazing feeling.

The difference between Marilyn Monroe and the early Pamela Anderson is not that great. What's amazing is that the taste of American men and international tastes in terms of beauty have essentially stayed the same. Styles change but our view of beauty stays the same.

I think Angelina Jolie has done amazing amazing things and the international adoption rate just since her has skyrocketed. It's unbelievable.

The whole kiss-and-tell thing is a negative approach that often happens in a World Cup. We will see negative stories about the players and it can affect their confidence and the overall performance of the national team on the pitch let alone the bid to actually stage the competition.

Without strength and courage it's really hard to perform at the highest levels of international figure skating because you're alone on the ice and you only have seven minutes over two nights to prove yourself.

I don't think nationalism is alone holding the field it's in contention with a lot of different things.