Since 1946, the Cubs have had two problems: They put too few runs on the scoreboard and the other guys put too many. So what is the new management improving? The scoreboard.

The business of America is not business. Neither is it war. The business of america is justice and securing the blessings of liberty.

Some calamities - the 1929 stock market crash, Pearl Harbor, 9/11 - have come like summer lightning, as bolts from the blue. The looming crisis of America's Ponzi entitlement structure is different. Driven by the demographics of an aging population, its causes, timing and scope are known.

The reformers' preferred metaphor is "leveling the playing field." They should listen to the logic of their language: fields are leveled by bulldozers.

The best use of history is as an inoculation against radical expectations, and hence against embittering disappointments.

Twenty years ago rooting for the Yankees was like rooting for IBM.

A politician's words reveal less about what he thinks about his subject than what he thinks about his audience.