Yet, it ought to be obvious that good music generally occupies a higher plane that mere politics. Great writers can express moods through melody and capture experiences we share most powerfully - love, lust, longing; joy, rage, fear; triumph, yearning and confusion.

George W. Bush broke a mold four years ago: Even though he lost the popular vote, he governed as if he had won by acclamation.

We live in an anaesthetized society.

It serves notice that President Bush is serious about promoting freedom, because free societies are a lot more peaceable than dictatorships and monarchies.

When you die, you graduate. I don't worry about death. Sickness teaches there is joy in everything. Take joy in your sickness because a lot of times God is telling you: 'You may not know it, but you're more blessed than you realized.'

It is no accident that Hitler, Lenin, Pol Pot and other butchers of note took special pains early in their despotic careers to suppress religion and undermine the traditional family. Theophobes would find such a characterization truly horrifying, but it's true. This explains why theophobia - while popular in faculty lounges, journalism seminars and Hollywood bacchanals - has not and probably never will attract a public following of any appreciable influence or size.

If you disaggregate, things fall apart.