The government sends low-flying helicopters to chase the horses into corrals and then takes them from the plains of the American West to federal holding pens. The government claims it's to save the horses from starvation. Critics claim the real motive is to clear the land for cattle grazing. Critics also say the horses are brutally traumatized.

I love 'Scandal.' It's my favorite show - it's really - the only one I really watch.

There's no constitutional right for your parents to pay for college.

I say, do not mess with Oprah. The one person in America you shouldn't mess with.

I say getting a lecturing from Oprah is probably the most terrifying lecture you could possibly get.

Where do thoroughbreds go after they lose one too many races, throw one too many riders, or develop a limp? Many thousands of thoroughbreds end up being slaughtered for horse meat. The unpleasant truth is horse meat is eaten in Europe and Asia.

I've bought perfectly healthy horses for a couple of hundred dollars just as they were about to be loaded on a slaughterhouse-bound truck.

There is a severe horse overpopulation crisis caused by overbreeding in the racing industry. It's time for that industry to accept responsibility for its castoffs and take dramatic action to protect a species that has so loyally served humankind.

It's time for compassionate Americans to send a wake-up call to their members of Congress and demand passage of legislation to end the wholesale slaughter of America's horses once and for all.

Real life is often sloppy, tragic, ugly, embarrassing, unglamorous, and not made for TV.

Public downfalls are more painful and humiliating than private ones.

A study, by its very nature, is an abstraction.

Every day, it seems, a new extreme weather catastrophe happens somewhere in America, and the media's all over it, profiling the ordinary folks wiped out by forest fires, droughts, floods, massive sinkholes, tornadoes.

Go ahead, weathercasters and reporters: Tell Americans precisely what we don't want to hear: namely, that our self-indulgent, carbon-heavy, gluttonous and disposable lifestyle is precisely what is churning up the angry response from the skies and seas.

McDonald's says it's phasing out pig gestation crates. When I heard that news, I almost started crying.

A breeding sow spends most of her life in a tiny cage. It's usually about seven feet long and two feet wide. She cannot turn around. She cannot scratch herself. She must urinate and defecate where she stands. Simply put, I believe she is tortured, day in and day out.

I would much rather devour a piece of well-seasoned squash than a slice of an animal's rotting carcass.

The fact is: America's obsession with meat and dairy has pretty much destroyed our sense of taste. The average burger and milkshake meal is so overloaded with fat, salt and sugar that it has numbed our taste buds to virtually anything else.

The myriad of serious health risks resulting from poor diet include high cholesterol, heart disease, type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, stroke, and even sleep apnea.

Meat production is one of the leading causes of climate change because of the destruction of the rainforest for grazing lands, the massive amounts of methane produced by farm animals and the huge amounts of water, grain and other resources required to feed animals.

The killer whale Tilikum has helped SeaWorld sell millions of dollars worth of tickets.

Using animals for entertainment is big business, plain and simple.

The raccoons, foxes, beavers, chinchillas, minks, rabbits, and yes, sometimes even dogs and cats that are killed for fur are not very different from your beloved dog or cat. They all have eyes, ears and hearts. They all experience pain when they are physically maimed. They shake with fear when they experience terror.

Unfortunately, fur is still flying off the racks. It's a billion dollar industry.

The natural world is not indestructible.

Every decision we make - when we choose a vehicle, when we pump gas into that vehicle, when we order food - is not just a personal lifestyle choice. It's an environmental and moral choice.

Today, it seems almost everyone knows a friend or relative who is gay.

If parents don't instruct their kids on the narrow boundaries of respectful behavior toward the opposite sex, their kids won't learn it anywhere else.

I am what I want. What I seek to consume, possess, and achieve is a mirror that reflects my lusts and cravings, values and priorities, and moral boundaries or lack thereof.

Unfortunately, addicts don't respond to reason or rationality.

There's no guilt in eating fruits, vegetables, nuts and grains.

I think I would love to have dinner with Gandhi; Jesus Christ; Mother Theresa; Ingrid Newkirk, the president of PETA; and Madonna.

What does homophobia look like when it's stripped bare of fancy costumes like family values and tradition? It looks like that group of strange, angry people who protest at the funerals of U.S. soldiers who've died fighting for our country.

What's it like to figure out you're gay and then begin the process of coming out? Well, for most of my life, I felt doomed. I could imagine no path that would allow me to realize my authentic self. I felt the need to lie, even to myself, insisting: I am straight.

After coming out as gay, I soon felt a lot more comfortable in my life, moment to moment.

When you're in the closet, you feel like the sky will fall down if anyone finds out. A lot of the fear is self-generated.