Like many other touchstones of twenty-first-century pop culture 'The Sopranos' was hatched in the late Nineties predicting a future that never arrived. It was designed for a decade that would be just like the Nineties except more so in an America that enjoyed seeing itself as smarter and braver and freer than ever before.

President Obama has offered a plan with 4 trillion dollars in debt reduction over a decade with two and a half dollars of spending reductions for every one dollar of revenue increases and tight controls on future spending. It's the kind of balanced approach proposed by the bipartisan Simpson-Bowles commission.

Here is what we know after more than a decade of Republican rule: Texas works. Even 'The New York Times' let it slip into its pages that 'Texas is the future.'

I've thought for the last decade or so the only actual place raw truth was seeping through in newspapers was on the Comics Pages. They were able to pull off intelligent social comment pure truths not found elsewhere in the news pages and had the ability to make it all funny entertaining and pertinent.

We know from our own history that democratic institutions take decades to mature and we know from past conflicts that freedom is not free.

As a consequence of the victories we have registered during our first ten years of freedom we have laid a firm foundation for the new advances we must and will make during the next decade.

In South Africa we could not have achieved our freedom and just peace without the help of people around the world who through the use of non-violent means such as boycotts and divestment encouraged their governments and other corporate actors to reverse decades-long support for the Apartheid regime.

For more than four decades the Libyan people have been ruled by a tyrant - Moammar Gaddafi. He has denied his people freedom exploited their wealth murdered opponents at home and abroad and terrorized innocent people around the world - including Americans who were killed by Libyan agents.

I was born in the '60s and grew up in the '70s - not exactly the best decade for food in British history. It was horrendous. It was a time when as a nation we excelled in art and music and acting and photography and fashion - all creative skills... all apart from cooking.

Fitness will be a major factor in the first race and I think that will play into the hands of drivers who have been racing recently rather than people like me who haven't raced properly for a decade. I'am not one of the favourites to start with.

Actually criminal sanctions that are given could be up to five years for violating the rules and regulations under the campaign finance reform. This is like the Alien and Sedition Act of years and years ago decades ago.

The last three decades have seen the collapse of the family wage system.

Our nation has kept faith with its veterans. Funding for veterans healthcare and benefits is strong and has increased more than 75 percent in the last decade.

You can almost see voters nodding their heads at home: The public's faith in politicians and political institutions has been on a steep and dangerous decline for decades because elected leaders fail to deliver.

Watching the evening news in 2011 is a strange time-travel experience. 'The CBS Evening News ' 'ABC World News' and 'NBC Nightly News' haven't changed their style over the decades still going for that old-fashioned mix of voice-of-authority pomp and feel-good fluff. The difference is that people aren't watching.

My own life has in some ways been a decades-long tour of the sibling experience. I have full sibs I have half-sibs and for a time I had step-sibs.

The wonderful thing about acting is you move along with your decade. The older you get the more interesting the parts you get to play and you bring more of your personal experience to the part.

Let us be about setting high standards for life love creativity and wisdom. If our expectations in these areas are low we are not likely to experience wellness. Setting high standards makes every day and every decade worth looking forward to.

Public discourse has been polluted now for decades by corporate-funded disinformation - not just with climate change but with a host of health environmental and societal threats. The implications for the planet are grim.

This Nation has realized significant environmental improvements over the last three decades.

We all recognize that in recent decades many important achievements have helped create a cleaner healthier environment yet our national needs in environmental health are not being fully met.

Liberals in Congress have spent the past three decades pandering to environmental extremists. The policies they have put in place are in large part responsible for the energy crunch we are seeing today. We have not built a refinery in this country for 30 years.

In a few decades the relationship between the environment resources and conflict may seem almost as obvious as the connection we see today between human rights democracy and peace.

Americans are a decade behind Canada when it comes to sex education and understanding their bodies.