Racial prejudice boils down to the deeply anti-American message that some people are born to fail.

I've learned that I need to spell out, even in cases seemingly so blatant, that in fact I am not taking this at face value and am being 'sarcastic.

If you didn't know better, you might have thought in 2003 and 2004 that U.S. government strategy was being set by people trying to make enemies rather than friends in the Arab-Islamic world. And if you didn't know better, you might think that the Chinese government's approach to the Olympics is being set by people trying to make the country look bad.

Racial prejudice boils down to the deeply anti-American message that some people are born to fail.

Contrary to what you might think, China's economy is relatively less efficient, and more polluting, than those of rich countries.

Make the important interesting.

The whole point of constitutional democracy is the peaceful transfer of power; of Al Gore passing the baton to George W. Bush, even though that election was very suspiciously called.