Contemporary politics is all about phony energy, about running around slamming doors for the sake of it-or, more to the point, opening them and tossing through a huge sack of taxpayer dollars.

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

Government health care changes the relationship between the citizen and the state, and, in fact, I think it's an assault on citizenship.

We're on the brink of a world in which the wealthiest nations, from Canada to Norway to Japan, can barely project meaningful force to their own borders while the nickel 'n' dime basket-cases go nuclear.

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

Most mainline Protestant churches are, to one degree or another, post-Christian. If they no longer seem disposed to converting the unbelieving to Christ, they can at least convert them to the boggiest of soft-left clichés, on the grounds that if Jesus were alive today he’d most likely be a gay Anglican bishop in a committed relationship driving around in an environmentally friendly car with an “Arms are for Hugging” sticker on the way to an interfaith dialogue with a Wiccan and a couple of Wahhabi imams.

But, once you get a taste for shutting people up, it's hard to stop. Why bother winning the debate when it's easier to close it down?