If the splitter of hairs has a sharp enough knife, the fact of life itself can be chopped into nothing.

Most writers are middle-class and are the children of doctors or lawyers.

Which other major religion is based on the Godhead incarnate being whipped, tacked to a cross, stabbed? Only the Marquis de Sade could have made up a sicker religion. It's no wonder that those brought up in such a culture hate life and enjoy inflicting pain. All societies are sick but some are sicker than others. Christian societies are certainly the sickest.

Of course, it is possible for any citizen with time to spare, and a canny eye, to work out what is actually going on, but for the many there is not time, and the network news is the only news even though it may not be news at all but only a series of flashing fictions.

Can you imagine having a love affair going on and on decade after decade? Macabre.

The Gores, I think, are a bit brighter than the Bushes, historically speaking.

Ronald Reagan: a triumph of the embalmer's art.