For all of its faults, it gives most hardworking people a chance to improve themselves economically, even as the deck is stacked in favor of the privileged few. Here are the choices most of us face in such a system: Get bitter or get busy.

The one thing the police cannot protect us from is a politician like Bill de Blasio.

Right now in Oregon anybody can open a saloon, and hire people to come in and have sex in front of their patrons.

There is little anyone can do with fanatics. Reasoning with them is a fool's errand. Avoiding them is mandatory.

This country is a better place because Fox News has succeeded.

The gay marriage thing to me, I don't understand why it's so important for the secular progressives in this country, the people who want to change America fundamentally and every way, why this is the lead issue. The L.A. Times, New York Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Boston Globe. These people are going, 'Oh, my God, what are you doing? How can you not see the civil rights aspect of this?'

Get punctual, bring energy and creativity to your work, and stay with a project until it's completed (and then double-check the results). These habits will make you indispensable.