The numbers were, at best, guesstimates, and all three men knew it. The relevant figure would ultimately be the one that represented the most they could possibly ask from Congress without raising too many questions....

Treaty with Tripoli, Art. 11. As the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion;

The true axis of evil in America is the brilliance of our marketing combined with the stupidity of our people.

If politics were a musical, it would be “Promises, Promises”.

New Rule: America must stop bragging it’s the greatest country on earth, and start acting like it. I know this is uncomfortable for the “faith over facts” crowd, but the greatness of a country can,...

Science has an unfortunate habit of discovering information politicians don’t want to hear, largely because it has some bearing on reality.

Moreover, I believe that part of America’s genius has always been its ability to absorb newcomers, to forge a national identity out of the disparate lot that arrived on our shores. In this we’ve been...

Jesus is not a white, middle-class Republican. Jesus is not a Democrat, a Libertarian, a Marxist, or a Socialist. Jesus is not a Baptist, a Catholic, a Lutheran, or a Buddhist. Jesus isn’t even a...

Personal hatreds and rivalry loomed larger in most senator’s minds than the good of the Republic. [A big problem then and now]

What it means to be a ‘better person’, then, must be concrete and practical — that is to say, concerned with people’s political situations as a whole — rather than narrowly abstract, concerned only with...

I believe the spreading of Catholicism to be the most horrible means of political and social degradation left in the world.

You have to be a dead-eyed dirty-souled maniac to want to spend your extended life trading punches with other maniacs. Once you’ve seized that power, there’s no getting off the merry-go-round. You fight like hell...

Political society exists for the sake of noble actions, and not of mere companionship.

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’sorder calls this Soviet-style abomination ‘a...

The kind of self-righteous intolerance once associated with the more puritanical forms of religion and the more extreme forms of Socialism now reappeared to promote the ‘rights’ of women, homosexuals, racial minorities, the disabled and...

Income inequality has no necessary connection with poverty, the lack of material resources for a decent life, such as adequate food, shelter, and clothing. A society with great income inequality may have no poor people,...

Three things at least they [good politicians] must require; the first is back-bone; the second is back-bone; and the third is back-bone.

America is the greatest engine of innovation that has ever existed, and it can’t be duplicated anytime soon, because it is the product of a multitude of factors: extreme freedom of thought, an emphasis on...

Some say that because the United States was wrong before, it cannot possibly be right now, or has not the right to be right. (The British Empire sent a fleet to Africa and the Caribbean...

I believe you find life such a problem because you think there are good people and bad people. You’re wrong, of course. There are, always and only, the bad people, but some of them are...

You start out wanting to change the world through language, and end up thinking it’s enough to tell a few good jokes.

It’s strange, but I find myself more disillusioned by a man who has such easily persuaded views than I would be by one whose views were entirely opposite but passionately held. Isn’t that quixotic of...

Wananchi wanapokosa huduma za muhimu za kijamii (kama vile afya, elimu, chakula, malazi, na ulinzi) ilhali wanalipa kodi, na wameajiri serikali kuwaendeshea nchi kwa kiapo cha uaminifu wa vitabu vitakatifu, watakosa imani na serikali yao!...

Better the occasional faults of a government that lives in a spirit of charity than the consistent omissions of a government frozen in the ice of its own indifference.

The real power in America is held by a fast-emerging new Oligarchy of pimps and preachers who see no need for Democracy or fairness or even trees, except maybe the ones in their own yards,...

The authorities don’t grant concessions out of the kindness of their hearts; they simply concede the reality of what their subjects are strong enough to compel from them. If you want political leverage, don’t beg...

In less than a year, the Bush administration will strut out of office, leaving the country in roughly the same condition a toddler leaves a diaper.

Why do they [Americans] quarrel, why do they hate Negroes, Indians, even Germans, why do they not have science and poetry commensurate with themselves, why are there so many frauds and so much nonsense? I...

It turns out that indecision is a path itself; but figuratively, a vertical path – up or down – meaning it isn’t always a fruitless path. One is forgotten, but the other is glorified. To...

What is the difference between yesterday occupation & today’s freedom.

Everyone can be a leader irrespective of their age, race, creed, nationality or political affiliation. Once you can figure out your talents and optimize them very well, at the right place and at the right...

I despise charity. It gives crumbs to a few and silences the others.

A slinky is a toy made for stairs, but that’s entirely too tiresome. What about a toy for escalators that doesn’t move and does nothing and that’s the whole point? I think Americans would relate...

Power concedes nothing without a demand.

A job is like a politician struggling in the water. Be sure you hold it down.

The main cause of the ineffectiveness of British propaganda is that those directing it seem to have lost their own belief in the peculiar values of English civilization or to be completely ignorant of the...

I, too, like yourself was a good party man: my party was that of the Church; I was ultramontane. Your party system is one of your thefts from our Church; your National Convention is our...

In all the useful arts the world is either standing still or going backwards.

I’m going to go out on a limb and say that’s the best place to hang a noose. More politicians need to be sticking their necks out for us.

I’m a handyman. I work with my hand. I masturbate for a living. That’s right, I’m in politics.

Politicians give criminals a bad name. A bad name like a bad word like shit.

It’s still masturbation if your clone gives you a hand job. It’s also a lot like being a member of Congress.

Don’t point your accusatory finger at me, unless you want me to wrap my hand around it, grip it tight, and jerk it off. That’s how a real politician defers blame.

I love Ocala. I also love anal sex with midgets. I mean I would, if I were an averagely perverted politician.

Leadership is being the first to put others second. Wait, that’s not right. That’s politics.

People go funny in the head when talking about politics. The evolutionary reasons for this are so obvious as to be worth belaboring: In the ancestral environment, politics was a matter of life and death....

I believe the shortest path between two points involves an elaborate maze as the only option of travel, entry and exit fees, and forms and applications that must be approved before the journey can even...

Identity politics divides us; fiction connects. One is interested in sweeping generalizations, the other in nuances. One draws boundaries, the other recognizes no frontiers. Identity politics is made of solid bricks; fiction is flowing water.

When journalists are ‘accused’ of being ‘advocates’, that means: challenging and deviating from DC orthodoxies.

There was a car in front of me driving all conservatively, and then, lo and behold, I saw that he had a Romney bumper sticker.