“New opinions are always suspected, and usually opposed, without any other reason but because they are not already common.”

Those who do not complain are never pitied.

“We have to do more than just elect a new President if we truly want to change this country.”

“America is a large friendly dog in a small room. Every time it wags its tail it knocks over a chair.”

“Look at all the sentences which seem true and question them.”

“Judge thyself with the judgment of sincerity, and thou will judge others with the judgment of charity.”

“…it is as hard to do your duty when men are sneering at you as when they are shooting at you.”

“He who boasts of his ancestry is praising the deeds of another.”

“Many would be cowards if they had courage enough.”

“There is no excellent beauty that hath not some strangeness in the proportion.”

“The nice thing about egotists is that they don’t talk about other people.”

“It isn’t necessary to have relatives in Kansas City in order to be unhappy.”

“No problem is so formidable that you can’t walk away from it.”

Life is what happens when you are making other plans.

Yesterday the New York Times published three op-eds presenting opinions on Afghanistan, one by Robert D. Kaplan, one by Nathaniel C. Fick and Vikram J. Singh, fellows at the Center for a New American Security, and Nader Nadery and Haseeb Humayoon, two Afghans involved with NGO’s.

In his op-ed Mr. Kaplan emphasizes the geo-political importance of the struggle in Afghanistan:

So, here’s my…

In this satirical video, British humorists John Bird and John Fortune, a/k/a “the Long Johns,” explain the financial crisis. It’s actually nearly a year old but it still works.

Humor across the Pond is a tad different, not least of which is less fear of risking alienating racial sensibilities. The bit about the “poor black man in Alabama” in his “string…

Human history becomes more and more a race between education and catastrophe.

“It is a funny thing about life; if you refuse to accept anything but the best, you very often get it.”

“Saturday Night Live” parodied the debate between Joe Biden and Sarah Palin, getting in good zingers against both.

It’s starting to feel like Tina Fey is running for vice president. Fey again returned to “Saturday Night Live” to play Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin as the sketch comedy show continued to pull out all the stops in its election year…

I must confess some amusement over the YahooNews headline “Officials say Taliban mad over alleged US strike.” The lede is also encouraging.

The Taliban are unusually angry about the latest suspected U.S. missile strike in Pakistan, a sign a top militant may have died in the attack, officials and residents said Sunday amid reports the death toll rose by two to 24.

Less amusing but…