The Republicans do not look on the Democrats as the evil empire.

Took me a while to get to the point today, but that is because I did not know what the point was when I started.

To 'know your place' is a good idea in politics. That is not to say 'stay in your place' or 'hang on to your place', because ambition or boredom may dictate upward or downward mobility, but a sense of place - a feel for one's own position in the control room-is useful in gauging what you should try to do.

In lieu of those checks and balances central to our legal system, non-citizens face an executive that is now investigator, prosecutor, judge, jury and jailer or executioner. In an Orwellian twist, Bush's order calls this Soviet-style abomination 'a full and fair trial.'

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

Nobody stands taller than those willing to stand corrected.

Knowing how things work is the basis for appreciation, and is thus a source of civilized delight.