The Thing About Democracy, Beloveds, Is That

The Impulse To Make Ourselves Safer By Making Ourselves Less Free Is An Old One ... When We Are Badly Frightened, We Think We Can Make Ourselves Safer By Sacrificing Some Of Our Liberties. We Did It During The Mccarthy Era Out Of Fear Of Communism. Less Liberty Is Regularly Proposed As A Solution To Crime, To Pornography, To Illegal Immigration, To Abortion, To All Kinds Of Threats.

Be Outrageous, Ridicule The Fraidy-cats, Rejoice In All The Oddities That Freedom Can Produce.

I Believe In Practicing Prudence At Least Once Every Two Or Three Years.

Satire Is Traditionally The Weapon Of The Powerless Against The Powerful. I Only Aim At The Powerful. When Satire Is Aimed At The Powerless, It Is Not Only Cruel -- It's Vulgar.

I Think Most Of Us Become Nicer As We Get Older, Less Judgmental, Less Full Of Certitude; Life Tends To Knock A Few Corners Of Us As We Go Through. Cancer, Divorce, Teenagers, And Other Plagues Make Us Give Up On Expecting Ourselves - Or Life - To Be Perfect, Which Is A Real Relief.