In its attempt to crush the Black Panthers, the FBI engineered frequent arrests on the flimsiest of pretexts.

Despair is the central part of the psychopathology. For the handmaiden of gossip is treachery.

A childish soul not inoculated with compulsory prayer is a soul open to any religious infection.

The art of politics is to separate actions from consequences

Republicans know well that a change of rhetorical pace is necessary. But efforts by their leaders to damp down the bellicosity of newly elected Tea Party types is running into the fact that the Tea Partiers have only the high volume setting on their amplifiers, just like Palin. They're like a couple having a fight at a funeral; politely sotto voce, then suddenly bursting out fortissimo with their plaints and accusations.

The travel writer seeks the world we have lost - the lost valleys of the imagination.

Are you more likely to tolerate drivel than you were four years ago? I think the answer is yes. Four years of Reagan has deadenedthe senses against a barrage of uninterrupted nonsense.