Calling George Bush shallow is like calling a dwarf short.

Personally, I think government is a tool, like a hammer. You can use a hammer to build or you can use a hammer to destroy; there is nothing intrinsically good or evil about the hammer itself. It is the purposes to which it is put and the skill with which it is used that determine whether the hammer's work is good or bad.

Most of us think of government as them. Yet government isn't Them: It's us.

Whenever you hear a politician carry on about what a mess the schools are, be aware that you are looking at the culprit.

Margaret Atwood, the Canadian novelist, once asked a group of women at a university why they felt threatened by men. The women said they were afraid of being beaten, raped, or killed by men. She then asked a group of men why they felt threatened by women. They said they were afraid women would laugh at them.

The Founders were right all along, but the results are a lot funnier than they intended.

California is now close to spending more on prisons than it does on higher education - surely the death warrant of a civilization.