I Envy People Who Write Easily. I

The Democratic Line Is That The Republican House Does Nothing But Block And Oppose. In Fact, It Has Passed Hundreds Of Bills Only To Have Them Die Upon Reaching The Desk Of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. He Has Rendered The Senate Inert By Simply Ensuring That Any Bill That Might Present A Politically Difficult Vote For His Democratic Colleagues Never Even Comes To The Floor.

The Only Reason The President Insists On Raising [tax] Rates Is Because He Knows It Will Destroy Republican Unity, It Will Cause A Complete Fracture Of The Republican Majority In The House, It Will Hand Him A Congress That He Can Then Manipulate For The Next Two Years At Least Because The Republicans Will Be Neutered. ... This Is Entirely A Political Action, A Way To Get A Surrender From The Republicans.

Where There Is A Confluence Of Interests Among Nations, As, For Example The Swine Flu Or Polio, You Can Get Well Functioning International Institutions Like The World Health Organization. And You Can Act. Climate Change Is Different, Because The Science Remains Hypothetical And The Potential Costs Staggering.

You Can Have The Most Advanced And Efflorescent Of Cultures. Get Your Politics Wrong, However, And Everything Stands To Be Swept Away. This Is Not Ancient History. This Is Germany 1933... Politics Is The Moat, The Walls, Beyond Which Lie The Barbarians. Fail To Keep Them At Bay, And Everything Burns.

As The Romance Of Manned Space Exploration Has Waned, The Drive Today Is To Find Our Living, Thinking Counterparts In The Universe. For All The Excitement, However, The Search Betrays A Profound Melancholy - A Lonely Species In A Merciless Universe Anxiously Awaits An Answering Voice Amid Utter Silence.