George Bush and John Ashcroft were religious in a scary way, but the rational among us could always take heart that, deep down, the Bush administration was more cynical than messianic.

Within the cult of Wall Street that forged Mitt Romney, making money justifies any behavior, no matter how venal.

This is America: Corporate stealing is practically the national pastime, and Goldman Sachs is far from the only company to get away with doing it.

Organized greed always defeats disorganized democracy.

The NFL, sadly, has a fatal environmental problem: It kills its workers.

What we Americans go through to pick a president is not only crazy and unnecessary but genuinely abusive. Hundreds of millions of dollars are spent in a craven, cynical effort to stir up hatred and anger on both sides.

The individual incentive not to commit crime on Wall Street now is almost zero.