[Note: My morning teleclass is now closed, the evening one is still available; see below.] Years ago, somebody asked Nathaniel Branden how you know when you love somebody. His answer was something to the effect that, "When they enter a room, for you, the room gets a little brighter, like the lights had been turned up a notch."  What is it that makes love matter; that brings that glow, that brightness from another fellow human being? Love is too rich and complex to boil down to some single facet or data point - and I wouldn't want to do it if I could; but one of the elements that goes into feeling love for somebody, is the experience of being seen. It's not easy to achieve, but it's the key to being loved.  Here's how to do it.

Why should the federal government bother to impose taxes when it can use the Federal Reserve to "print" all the money it needs to pay its bills? Last year, the Fed bought 77 percent of all of the government's new debt, which is the equivalent of printing money. The government borrowed almost 40 cents for each dollar it spent, with the Fed printing 30 cents of each dollar spent through its bond purchases (creating new money) -- an amount equal to about 7 percent of gross domestic product. What would happen if the Fed printed enough money each year to cover the cost of the federal income tax of approximately $1.4 trillion? Most people who have taken a course in economics know that it ultimately would result in ruinous inflation. Can one envision a world where there is both apparent price stability and no income taxes? The following is to encourage you to think about possible alternatives to the existing economic order.

"We've blunted the Taliban's momentum in Afghanistan," President Barack Hussein Obama said in his acceptance speech at the Democrat National Convention Sept. 6. "Al Qaida is on the path to defeat and Osama bin Laden is dead." Five days later, on 9/11/2012, Islamists murdered our ambassador to Libya and three other Americans and destroyed our consulate in Benghazi.  In an attack on our embassy in Cairo the same day, the mob pulled down the American flag, burned it, and raised the black flag of al Qaida on the embassy flagstaff. Al Qaida also was behind attacks on our embassy in Yemen Sept. 13, and Tunisia Sept. 14, said Thomas Joscelyn of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. "The path to defeat" more appropriately describes Mr. Obama's foreign policy.

Mitt Romney's dominance in the first presidential debate was so clear cut, President Barack Hussein Obama's admirers in the news media couldn't spin it away.  Romney won, 46-22, in CBS' instapoll of viewers.  In CNN's flash poll, it was Romney 67, Obama 25. Conservatives were ecstatic, liberals dismayed. MSNBC's talking heads looked as if "someone shot all their dogs," tweeted a writer for National Review. The best the spinners could spin was there was no "game changing" moment.  Fred Barnes of the Weekly Standard dampened conservative glee a little when he recalled that Mr. Mondale was the winner in his first debate with President Reagan. "The triumph on one night by Mondale led nowhere," Mr. Barnes said.  "Romney needs to keep in mind that victory in one debate and victory on November 6 are two different things." Mr. Barnes should have reflected more on why Mr. Mondale's superior performance did him no good. This Romney-Obama first debate was indeed a "game changer."  Here's why:

It is a common experience these days to feel that time is short. We are busy, we have important things to do, and not enough hours in the day in which to do them. That we in America now spend the first five or so months of the year to pay for our taxes doesn't help. But living like this becomes something of a Chinese finger puzzle - those gizmos you used to find at fairs where you put your fingers into the ends and then try and pull them out - the contraption tightens as you pull. Our experience of time is somewhat the same. By completely filling our days, our experience can be that we become more anxious, more stressed, and more desperate for time. Here's how to extract your time from the finger puzzle.

My formative experience in politics came at age 16, when I ran the Goldwater campaign in Columbia County, Wisconsin, because the senior party wanted nothing to do with him.  I was sure Barry would win because... because I wanted him to. As you may recall, Barry didn't win.  Ever since, I've been able to distinguish pretty well between what I'd like to have happen in an election, and what I think will happen.  I haven't been wrong about the outcome of a presidential race since 1964. President Barack Hussein Obama is cruising toward re-election, most polls indicate. The signs I read say different.