A book should have an intellectual shape and a heft that comes with dealing with a primary subject.

Different regions may require different strategies, as President Bush has noted, but not different basic principles. It's either collective security or selective security.

Is sloppiness in speech caused by ignorance or apathy? I don't know and I don't care.

I'm willing to zap conservatives when they do things that are not libertarian.

Writers who used to show off their erudition no longer sing in the bare ruined choir of the media.

Sometimes I know the meaning of a word but am tired of it and feel the need for an unfamiliar, especially precise or poetic term, perhaps one with a nuance that flatters my readership's exquisite sensitivity.

Sir Alec Douglas-Home, when he was British Foreign Secretary, said he received the following telegram from an irate citizen: "To hell with you. Offensive letter follows."