At first glance, an alliance of anarchists and government might appear to be somewhat paradoxical. But the formal convergence in Oakland makes explicit the movement's aims: They're anarchists for statism, wild free-spirited youth demanding more and more total government control of every aspect of life - just so long as it respects the fundamental human right to sloth.

So-called "progressives" actively wage war on progress. . . . Ultimately, progressives are at war with mass prosperity.

Our leadership class's real accomplishment is résumé padding.

No family of an American hostage has ever been prosecuted for paying a ransom for the return of their loved ones. The last thing we should ever do is to add to a family's pain.

There is no conceivable amount of money worth telling the world that you were beaten up by Liza Minnelli.

After all, [female genital mutilation is] a key pillar of institutional misogyny in Islam: its entire purpose is to deny women sexual pleasure. True, a lot of us hapless western men find we deny women sexual pleasure without even trying, but we don't demand genital mutilation to guarantee it. On such slender distinctions does civilization rest.

One lesson of Sept. 11 is that a government that tries to do everything is likely to do most of it badly.