We are riveted by the soap operas of public lives. We admire the famous most for what makes them infamous: it reassures us that they are not better and no happier than all the people with their noses pressed hard against the glass.

Afghanistan is more than the 'graveyard of empires.' It's the mother of vicious circles.

If you're famous enough, the rules don't apply.

Journalism, spooked by rumors of its own obsolescence, has stopped believing in itself. Groans of doom alternate with panicked happy talk.

Personally, I've decided to stop evolving.

For two centuries, the South has feared a takeover by blacks or the feds. In Obama, they have both.

Good and evil are not like the Redskins and the Cowboys.