Technology provides means for expression and interchange and so on, so yes it should be free and open, but there are a lot of constraints on how its used.

The world is a very puzzling place. If you're not willing to be puzzled, you just become a replica of someone else's mind.

U.S. has no feudal background, so institutions that remained in place in Europe did not remain in place here.

Edward Said is a very honorable representative of the "intellectual" in the sense of the term that he defines.

The main selling appeal of NAFTA to US corporations is that it gives them an advantage in the North American market over their European and Japanese competitors.

Hamas is regularly described as 'Iranian-backed Hamas, which is dedicated to the destruction of Israel.' One will be hard put to find something like 'democratically elected Hamas, which has long been calling for a two-state settlement in accord with the international consensus'—blocked for over 30 years by the US and Israel. All true, but not a useful contribution to the Party Line, hence dispensable.

[Mikhail] Gorbachev complained. He was told look, there's nothing on paper. People didn't actually say it but the implication was look, if you are dumb enough to take faith in a gentleman's agreement with us, that's your problem. NATO expanded to East Germany.