In the absence of evidence, superstition. It's a Middle Ages thing. That's my theory anyway.

Ron Karenga wrote a book back in 1968, and in that book, he said that the reason, part of his motivation for starting Kwanzaa was because he felt that Christianity was the white man religion, and he didn't like Jews, and so he made up this lie. And he called it an African holiday because he was concerned that if he didn't call it an African holiday, that black Americans would not participate in it.

I try to tell the truth.

Life is short. You die before you think you're going to. Don't waste it in college unless you're doing something real. My view.

I guess what I'm looking for here is empathy. So you [Nicholas Kristof] have traveled all around the world, famously to the worse places of the world. Darfur. Mogadishu, Ouagadougou. Probably those places much more than Modesto or Lewiston.I never read a column by you that suggest the people in those places, who support dictators oftentimes, are racists or bad people. You would never write that about a poor person in the third world but you are implying that about your fellow Americans.

I'm such a sap for democracy and politics that I get weepy when I see anybody voting.

To be a feminist, you could cut your hair really short. You have to be really angry about something.