My Thursday column is more personal than most and is inspired partly by a visit back to the farm where I grew up in Oregon. The column looks at the vexing question of animal rights, tied partly to Proposition 2 on the California ballot, which would ban factory farms from raising cattle, hogs and poultry in tiny cages in which they can’t even turn around. Let me be the first to say that I’m a hypocrite. I believe that certain animal rights should be respected and that cruelty should be outlawed in raising livestock — but I also enjoy a hamburger. You can read a littel about the difference between family farms and factory farms on my blog. And as always, feel free to share your thoughts, either there or here.

There are a few topics that have been particularly important to me in my column writing. One of them has been Darfur. Another has been the sexual enslavement and trafficking of young women. In 2004, I wrote a five-column series, most of it reported from Cambodia, about Srey Mom and Srey Neth, two 21st-century slaves, teenage prostitutes whose freedom from brothel owners came at a price of $353. I'm also a big believer in the new age of multimedia journalism, so you're invited to peruse the full archive of my video coverage.