In theory, taxes should be like shopping. What I buy is government services. What I pay are my taxes.

This country is so urbanized we think low-fat milk comes from cows on Nutri/System weight-loss plans.

Feeling good about government is like looking on the bright side of any catastrophe. When you quit looking on the bright side, the catastrophe is still there.

When [George W.] Bush was elected, I think they thought I would have some sort of special "in" with that administration, to provide some sort of inside poop. Which is not something I'd be interested in doing, and anyway, I didn't. I actually knew more people in his dad's administration. So it was obviously winding down at Rolling Stone, and they were having financial troubles, too. They weren't getting the advertising, and the issues were getting thin. They fired Bob Love, who'd been my editor there for a long time.

Very little is known of the Canadian country since it is rarely visited by anyone but the Queen and illiterate sport fishermen.

These were people who believed everything about the Soviet Union was perfect, but they were bringing their own toilet paper.

The French are a smallish, monkey-looking bunch and not dressed any better, on average, than the citizens of Baltimore. True, you can sit outside in Paris and drink little cups of coffee, but why this is more stylish than sitting inside and drinking large glasses of whiskey I don't know.