Non-criminal sexual harassment on the job is not a problem for the virtuous woman except in the rarest of cases.

Men hardly ever ask sexual favors of women from whom the certain answer is “no.”

Virtuous women are seldom accosted by unwelcome sexual propositions or familiarities, obscene talk, or profane language.

A few months ago I told the American people I did not trade arms for hostages. My heart and my best intentions still tell me that's true, but the facts and the evidence tell me it is not.

Ironically, on the 200th anniversary of our Bill of Rights, we find free speech under assault throughout the United States, including on some college campuses. The notion of political correctness has ignited controversy across the land. And although the movement arises from the laudable desire to sweep away the debris of racism and sexism and hatred, it replaces old prejudice with new ones.

And political extremists roam the land, abusing the privilege of free speech, setting citizens against one another on the basis of their class or race.

And I remind myself a lot of this: We must conquer the temptation to assign bad motives to people who disagree with us.

If we've learned anything in the past quarter century, it is that we cannot federalize virtue. Indeed, as we pile law upon law, program upon program, rule upon rule, we actually can weaken people's moral sensitivity. The rule of law gives way to the rule of the loophole, the notion that whatever is not illegal must be acceptable. In this way, great goals go unmet.