Ray Bradbury is, for many reasons, the most influential writer in my life. Throughout our long friendship, Ray supplied not only his terrific stories but a grand model of what a writer could be, should be, and yet rarely is: brilliant and charming and accessible, willing to tolerate and to teach, happy to inspire but also to be inspired.

For years, even before 9/11, I've been trying to warn that the threat from amateur biolabs will ultimately turn out to be far more troublesome than leakage from military labs - perhaps even more costly and deadly than nuclear terrorism.

Grief is not productive. It simply represents an inefficiency in accepting change of status.

When all hopes are lost, only then does reality acquire that sharp focus that defines who we are and what we have become.

Having one's eyes opened doesn't make one grateful.

All it takes to get elected in twenty-first-century America is a mob of frightened sheep and a wolf with a nice smile.

Conservatism is not about tradition and morality, hasn't been for many decades... It is about the putative biological and spiritual superiority of the wealthy.