If we protected Afghanistan as well as politicians protect their own asses, the world would have nothing to fear

The smarter you are, the better-read you are, the more knowledgeable, the more questioning you are, the more skeptical you are, the better chance you have of not being manipulated, of not winding upsomebody's tool.

My feeling is that any species that can paint the Sistine Chapel ceiling and write Moby Dick and put someone on the moon does not have to settle for McDonald's toadburgers, novels by Judith Krantz, and American Idol.