Nowhere have I ever heard of Satan taking the form of an avuncular hippie. No doubt he could. It just seems inefficient.

A cherry pie is . . . ephemeral. From the moment it emerges from the oven it begins a steep decline: from too hot to edible to cold to stale to mouldy, and finally to a post-pie state where only history can tell you that it was once considered food. The pie is a parable of human life.

A desire for privacy does not imply shameful secrets; Moglen argues, again and again, that without anonymity in discourse, free speech is impossible, and hence also democracy. The right to speak the truth to power does not shield the speaker from the consequences of doing so; only comparable power or anonymity can do that.

It's not that any sufficiently advanced technology is magic, it's that any technology taking place beyond the threshold of our senses is.

The trouble with shooting people, Edie Banister now remembers, is that it's so hard to do just one.

Children, bored and opinionated, are scholars of the most dogmatic stripe.

Never mind, never mind, let's get to the part where we smite the unrighteous. I've brought my most alarming teeth!