Terrorism works better as a tactic for dictatorships, or for would-be dictators, than for revolutionaries .

A faction willing to take the risks of making war on the ossified status quo in the Middle East can be described as many things, but not as conservative.

We have millions and millions of North Korean children totally stunted in mind and body and will have to be dealt with at some point, who have been raised to believe that they live in a regime that is run by a god.

Islam in its origins is just as shady and approximate as those from which it took its borrowings. It makes immense claims for itself, invokes prostrate submission or "surrender" as a maxim to its adherents, and demands deference and respect from nonbelievers into the bargain. There is nothing-absolutely nothing-in its teachings that can even begin to justify such arrogance and presumption.

For the people who ostensibly wish me well or are worried about my immortal soul, I say I take it kindly.

My children, to the extent that they have found religion, have found it from me, in that I insist on at least a modicum of religious education for them.

My chief consolation in this year of living dyingly has been the presence of friends.