I felt, and often still feel, unable to live up to the ideals I really hold.

To rid the world of Osama bin Laden, Anwar al-Awlaki and Moammar Qaddafi within six months: if Obama were a Republican, he'd be on Mount Rushmore by now.

Blogging is to writing what extreme sports are to athletics: more free-form, more accident-prone, less formal, more alive. It is, in many ways, writing out loud.

How can you tell when a political ideology has become the equivalent of a religion?

Homophobia: the fear that another man will treat you like you treat women.

Don't fool yourself that you're blogging when you're really just putting stuff up online.

The important things are not worth knowing because they are useful. They are worth knowing because they are true.

When you put a tiny and despised minority up for a popular vote, the minority usually loses.

When I was about eight, I asked my mother if it was true that God knows everything about you. When she answered yes, I said, "Then there's no hope for me, Mum."

I think of these imperial adventures like welfare programs; you start them with all good intentions, they never end, they go on forever and get more expensive as they go on.

The dirty little secret of journalism is that it really isn't a profession, it's a craft. All you need is a telephone and a conscience and you're all set.

Cats and books are my universe. Both are infinitely fascinating and full of mystery.

All jobs are odd, or they would be games or naps or picnics.

Only to those who have been in prison does freedom have such great meaning.

Throw em a bone and they want a steak.

I'm an equal opportunity despiser.

Great leadership usually starts with a willing heart, a positive attitude, and a desire to make a difference.

When Demosthenes was asked what was the first part of Oratory, he answered, "Action," and which was the second, he replied, "action," and which was the third, he still answered "Action.

Be drunk with Love, for Love is all that exists. Where is intimacy found if not in the give and take of Love.

no one had to tell me anything. I know what I am

Credentialed ignorance is still ignorance.