You have never seen greatness in a Presidency; I have. It was a rich kid who you would think had every reason to be a horse's ass - Franklin Roosevelt. He was humane and wise and resourceful. He was called a traitor to his class. With George Bush, that charge would never stick.

Doesn't anything socialistic make you want to throw up? Like great public schools, or health insurance for all?

I am a monopolar depressive descended from monopolar depressives. That's how come I write so good.

There is nothing left of him but curiosity and a pair of eyes.

If you actually are an educated, thinking person, you will not be welcome in Washington, D.C. I know a couple of bright seventh graders who would not be welcome in Washington D.C.

The German philosopher Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, who had syphilis, said that only a person of deep faith could afford the luxury of religious skepticism. Humanists, by and large educated, comfortably middle-class persons with rewarding lives like mine, find rapture enough in secular knowledge and hope. Most people can't.

All male writers, incidentally, no matter how broke or otherwise objectionable, have pretty wives. Somebody should look into this.