Her Majesty's government is engaging not merely in Orwellian Newspeak but in self-defeating Orwellian Newspeak. The broader message it sends is that ours is a weak culture so unconfident and insecure that if you bomb us and kill us our first urge is to find a way to flatter and apologize to you.

What happened to those men and women at Fort Hood had a horrible symbolism: Members of the best trained, best equipped fighting force on the planet gunned down by a guy who said a few goofy things no one took seriously. And that's the problem: America has the best troops and fiercest firepower, but no strategy for throttling the ideology that drives the enemy — in Afghanistan and in Texas.

In Europe, nothing is certain except death and welfare, and why let the former get in the way of the latter?

[Charles] Manson wanted to start a race war. Nobody said he was leading some sort of charge about white supremacy.

But a society that has nothing to die for has nothing to live for . . .

Big government makes small citizens.

Once you accept you're a child in the government nursery, why shouldn't Nanny tell you what to do?