Matthew Modine, 01/14/13

Actor, Activist, Filmmaker, Humanist

As a nation we cannot be shackled to an archaic Second Amendment which is being shielded by a minority of Americans that demand the right to use weapons that are continually killing citizens across our country.

Molly Davies, 01/14/13

Mother

Mr. President, I am writing to you as a wife and mother of two young daughters, whose 34-year-old husband, Matthew Davies, faces 10 years or more in federal prison for providing medical marijuana to sick people in California, even though he complied with state law concerning medicinal cannabis.

John Stamos, 01/14/13

Actor and producer

After my dad died, Jack and I didn't talk any more than we had before. We didn't see each other more often -- nothing really changed. But Jack became that important male figure in my life that I wanted to make proud.

Allison Tate, 01/14/13

Author, mother of four

I'm caught between the age of fertility -- of nausea, butterfly-wing kicks that can take my breath away, swollen breasts and baby blankets -- and the afterward. For the past ten years, an ellipsis has hovered over my head and heart as I wondered if another face would come to our family.

Will Bunch, 01/15/13

Author, 'The Backlash'

Swartz's persecution can't be passed off as an isolated incident. Instead, it feels more like the exclamation point on an administration whose commitment to maintaining secrecy, blocking transparency, limiting the flow of information and squelching dissent has been both unexpected and shocking.

Jennifer Niven, 01/15/13

Author, "Becoming Clementine"

Nancy Wake, the former WWII spy called 'The White Mouse' by the Germans for her ability to evade capture, died last year at 98. She received so many medals for service, 'she lived out her old age on the proceeds from their sale.' If only this were true of other women spies of WWII.

Frank Sharry, 01/15/13

Founder and executive director, America's Voice

Democrats are more united than ever on immigration. Meanwhile, movement conservatives and Republican leaders alike know that the GOP faces an existential crisis: It has to regain its competitiveness with Hispanic voters or go the way of the Whigs. So what is likely to happen?

Mark R. Kennedy, 01/15/13

Professor of political management and director of the Graduate School of Political Management, George Washington University

The sparse result of months of partisan wrestling over the fiscal cliff portends a reduced likelihood that any of President Obama's second-term priorities, including immigration reform, will be addressed in the manner he outlines in his upcoming inaugural address.

Howard Glaser, 01/15/13

Senior Policy Advisor to Gov Andrew Cuomo

Governor Andrew M. Cuomo announced legislation, (NY SAFE ACT), to give New York State the most comprehensive gun laws in the nation, which will keep guns out of the hands of potentially dangerous mental health patients and ban high capacity magazines and assault weapons.

Jon Wiener, 01/15/13

Contributing editor, The Nation; professor of history, UC Irvine; author, 'How We Forgot the Cold War: A Historical Journey Across America'

It couldn't be a sadder thing to admit, given what happened in those years, but -- given what's happened in these years -- who can doubt that the America of the 1950s and 1960s was, in some ways, simply a better place than the one we live in now?

John Cusack, 01/14/13

Makes films

Recently, I sat down with George Washington Law School professor and constitutional scholar Jonathan Turley and my close friend Kevin McCabe to discuss WikiLeaks' impact on transparency, the government's response, and the comparison to the Pentagon Papers whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg.

Joan Price, 01/12/13

Senior Sex Expert

By hiding your body and being embarrassed by it, you're buying into our youth-obsessed culture that says that only young, firm, fertile bodies can be sexy and alluring. Let's put that notion to rest right now!

Nina Bahadur, 01/14/13

Assistant Editor, HuffPost Women

I'm apparently supposed to look at each often-humiliated, clueless, insulting, entitled female character as an approximation of me. Are you kidding me?

Dr. Michael J. Breus, 01/15/13

Clinical Psychologist; Board Certified Sleep Specialist

Over the past two decades, chronic fatigue syndrome has won acceptance by the medical establishment. But much about the disorder -- its causes, its mechanisms in the body -- remain largely unknown.

Russell Bishop, 01/15/13

Author, consultant and executive coach

The secret in all of this has less to do with getting it all right before you set out on your journey and more to do with paying attention to your experience along the way.

Deb Baer, 01/14/13

Entertainment writer and editor

A lot of people will say that it was up to her when and where to come out, and they're absolutely right, but that still doesn't mean she wasn't a coward, and it doesn't change the fact that she could have helped millions of people by coming out years ago.

Keli Goff, 01/14/13

Author and political correspondent, TheRoot.com

A google search of "I hate Lena Dunham" now produces more than a million results, which is quite a lot for someone who entered the public conscious less than a year ago. The question is why?

Jeff Jarvis, 01/14/13

Author, 'Public Parts' and 'What Would Google Do?'

I hate to see a news organization being condemned for trafficking in public information. I would also hate to see journalists end up campaigning to make less information public. Journalists, of all people, should be fighting to make more information public.

Ann Brenoff, 01/12/13

Senior Writer, The Huffington Post

I took my first job at age 14, working part-time at the cosmetics counter at Rubin Bros. Drugstore in Newark, N.J. Forty years and a share of a Pulitzer Prize later, here are some lessons I picked up along the way.

Douglas Anthony Cooper, 01/14/13

Novelist, Amnesia (See: Blogger Mortis)

The NRA feeds its members on a steady diet of fear. "If we give an inch, then we're on that infernal toboggan to the hell where all guns are banned." Hence? Give nothing.

Seth Kaufman, 01/15/13

Reporter, Author

The best shows on TV may actually be books.

Laurie David, 01/14/13

Producer, author, NRDC Trustee

Enough is enough. Beyoncé's Pepsi deal was a serious lapse of judgment. And the White House tarnishes its own "brand" by selecting her to sing the national anthem at the inauguration, unwittingly boosting the beverage industry that is helping to drive the obesity epidemic.

Howard Fineman, 01/14/13

Editorial director, Huffington Post Media Group

A new Huffington Post/YouGov poll shows voters modestly hopeful about Barack Obama's chances of being more successful in his second term. And, given the haplessness of his Republican foes, Obama is in an unusually strong position to deliver on the potential of his second term -- but only if he has the will and wherewithal to turn ballot-box victory into real-life results.

Peter Farrelly, 01/14/13

Writer/director

What happened to driving in a car and just looking out the window? Your kids are giving up the entire physical world for this narcissistic/sychophantic/addictive need to follow someone or see who's following them.

Michael B. Keegan, 01/14/13

President, People for the American Way

Bachmann and the Tea Party have proven time and again that they don't take the business of governing seriously. Boehner and his fellow Republican leaders should stop pretending like they do.

William K. Black, 01/15/13

Assoc. Professor, Univ. of Missouri, Kansas City; Sr. regulator during S&L; debacle

It may prove impossible to save Obama from Obama, but it is critical that we continue to try to do so. Only continuous efforts by progressives can prevent the disaster of austerity and the betrayal of the safety net.

Graham Nash, 01/14/13

Singer-Songwriter, Photographer and Activist

In my humble opinion, the judges' ruling, granting Manning a 112-day reduction in any sentence he might receive, is welcome but far short of true justice. If the military broke its own laws and President Obama even declared publicly that Manning had broken the law, then how can anyone say that this could be a "fair" trial?

Daniel Ellsberg, 01/13/13

Former American military analyst who sparked a national uproar in 1971.

The mystique of secrecy in the universe of national security, even beyond the formal apparatus of classification and clearances, is a compelling deterrent to whistleblowing and thus to effective resistance to gravely wrongful or dangerous policies.

Michael Hogan, 01/14/13

Executive Arts and Entertainment Editor, The Huffington Post Media Group

By the time Oscar night rolls around, we hope that our model will feature the most reliable picks anywhere -- supplementing the educated guesswork that constitutes most efforts at awards prognostication. (I say supplementing, not supplanting, because we are, after all, avid fans and practitioners of such guesswork.)