WASHINGTON — For all the fury and fistfights outside the Lansing Capitol, what happened in Michigan last week was a simple accommodation to reality.

“Everything the Republicans have been saying about the Democratic leadership’s dependence on the unions is true.” Union leaders are “a stinky infestation” demanding “absolute obedience from the Democratic leadership.”

There are some interesting variations in news reports about the recently concluded U.N. climate conference at Doha, Qatar.

Change is coming to higher education, and probably sooner than we expect. Those of us who love the liberal arts must either speak out and find ways to demonstrate our value to the wider world, or accept that others will redefine higher education for us, against our will.

Last week, the Senate voted on the U.N. Convention on Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which would extend to the rest of the world many of the rights that Americans with disabilities already have.

Please don’t give animals as Christmas gifts: no dogs, no cats, no parakeets and definitely no wallabies.

The long-awaited announcement has finally come. The Supreme Court of the United States will take up two cases involving same-sex marriage. Thus we could be in the final days of the discrimination wrought by the so-called Defense of Marriage Act.