How can you take action in a rational way if you won't even take the time to understand the issue you're incensed about?

Inspecting IDs is a waste of time and money, but it's ideal from the bureaucratic point of view because it doesn't solve the problem.

Virtually everyone who is anyone in American politics and media has roundly condemned any thought that Iran's President Ahmadinejad should be allowed to desecrate Ground Zero with his noisome presence. They are making a mistake.

This year's episode of Civility Strikes Back relates to the baggy-pants half-moon.

Why are we allowing an Islamic public school, teaching intifada, in New York City? Don't we already have enough terrorists?

Mr. Cho's victims' families shouldn't be suing Virginia Tech; all it would accomplish is to enrich greedly lawyers while doing nothing useful.

The trouble is, the system was designed to keep a record of who was where, when.

It is better not to have a rule at all, than to have one which is not taken seriously, because disregarding the rules grows habitual.

Brazil serves as an object lesson in how government incompetence - not greed, not really bribery even, certainly not totalitarianism, just simple incompetence - can make life difficult on an otherwise free and vibrant economy.