Some will protest that in a world with so much human suffering, it is something between eccentric and obscene to mourn a dog. I think not. After all, it is perfectly normal—indeed, deeply human—to be moved when nature presents us with a vision of great beauty. Should we not be moved when it produces a vision—a creature—of the purest sweetness?

I would write my editorials using a manual typewriter in pitch-black darkness... I would produce the whole thing without having seen the text.

This week, Iranian-backed Houthi rebels seized control of the Yemeni government, heretofore pro-American. In September, they overran Sanaa, the capital. On Tuesday, they seized the presidential palace. On Thursday, they forced the president to resign.

If [Bush's] successors don't screw it up, within 10 years NASA will have us back to where we belong -- on other worlds.

Where religion is trivialized, one is unlikely to find persecution.

There is a mystique about psychiatry that people think that you have some kind of a magical lens, you know, Superman's X-ray vision into the soul. One of the reasons I left psychiatry is that I didn't believe that.

Preemption is a kind of pre-deterrence that stops the threat at an earlier, safer stage.