I was standing next to a famed geo-politician when the first news of the Argentine attack [on the Faulkland Islands] was received, and heard him muse incredulously: "An old-fashioned naval battle. A war between two civilized nations, perhaps with even a declaration of war, and later a peace conference. Wow." No hostages, no nukes, no ideologies, no religious fanaticism; just a fair-and-square war over national interests - hard to believe, in this day and age.

The most successful column is one that causes the reader to throw down the paper in a peak of fit.

Never assume the obvious is true.

The right to do something does not mean that doing it is right.

Gridlock is great. My motto is, 'Don't just do something. Stand there.'

When duty calls, that is when character counts.

... it's Bush's baby, even if he shares its popularization with Gorbachev. Forget the Hitler 'new order' root; F.D.R. used the phrase earlier.