On our next date I tell Him I think he is a big cheese. He laughs and says, A grand fromage, eh? No, I'm not a grand fromage; I'm what you would call a medium fromage. Something like a Camembert or Époisses. We laugh.

The […] Philistines were worsted by the captivated ark.

The shale gas boom of the past five years took the US by surprise. Gas prices there have plunged and electricity production is shifting fast from coal to gas-fired power stations. This has had a huge effect on all parts of the US economy, and is changing politics globally.

A man's vision reflects his memories. As I looked out on the nation from the President's Oval Office, my reflections included images burned deep in my mind for over a half a century. I remembered my father's concern for the tenant farmer and for the workers' need for collective bargaining. I remembered my mother's deep faith in the value of education. I remembered the pinched and hopeless look of poverty I saw on the faces of the Mexican-American children I had taught. I remembered the army of jobless and ragged men who rode grimy boxcars across our country during the Depression. These and a hundred other separate recollections of struggle and hope were all part of my heritage. They formed a portion of the background against which I developed the programs I felt America wanted and needed.