Isn't it interesting that eating a banana is somehow comical.

The intellectual tradition is one of servility to power, and if I didn't betray it I'd be ashamed of myself.

There are by now declassified documents from the 1950s that tells you a lot about what's going on in Egypt and we should have known it then. It's about exactly what's happening, how we can disregard public opinion as long as the dictators we support are capable of suppressing their populations. So to hell with public opinion. That's all right there in the 1950's. That's not security. That's not security of the government. That's, if anything, security from its own population. And there's a lot of that.

It's true that many say that [they] object to the idea of "human nature," but it's not clear what that is supposed to mean. Are we different from ants?

If you look at the minutes of the constitutional convention - which we have - Madison who was the main framer, proceeded to develop a system in which - as he put it - power would be in the hands of the wealth of the nation, the more responsible set of men and who recognize the need to protect the rights of property owners. That's why in the constitutional system, the most powerful part of the whole system is the senate.

For the past century or so that's [ Monroe Doctrine] actually been true, but it's declining very significantly.

The Irish sea is a chasm, and it just depends who's been holding the whip for 800 years and who's been under it for 800 years.