It is always well to accept your own shortcomings with candor but to regard those of your friends with polite incredulity.
It would be normal for anybody running a high-profile, politically controversial operation in China to anticipate worst-case scenario, and to do everything possible to guard against them.
Texas, to be respected must be polite. Santa Anna living, can be of incalculable benefit to Texas; Santa Anna dead, would just be another dead Mexican.
The Tigris and Euphrates Rivers created the 'Fertile Crescent' where some of the first civilizations emerged. Today they are immensely important resources, politically as well as geographically.
It is the responsibility of all the Sudanese, especially the political leaders and the media, to strengthen social cohesion through the proper understanding of the dynamics of unity, if they really want our country to remain united.
I believe in peace-building in any kind of platform, be it a political platform like Parliament or negotiations like peace-building negotiations.
Democracies are expense-averse and they think in terms of short-term, political interests rather than a long-term interest in stability.
People today sometimes get uncomfortable with empirical claims that seem to clash with their political assumptions, often because they haven't given much thought to the connections.
I always had that adolescent notion that I had to get out of Texas. But I'm really glad I grew up there. It's where I learned to look people in the eye, to be straightforward and polite.
From the day I started to think politically and to develop my own moral values, from my earliest youth, I have been an ardent defender of Israel.
Political leaders in Illinois kicked the can down the road, raised taxes, and ignored fiscal realities. Now, they're realizing the consequences of their actions: credit downgrades and negative outlooks.
Balanced is probably what I am, although that's just a polite way to say that you don't do anything very well.
I think the research evidence on the benefits of early childhood programs for the local economy is extremely strong. However, the moral and political choice is still up to us, as citizens and as voters.
What I think is highly inappropriate is what's going on across the Internet, a kind of political jihad against Dan Rather and CBS News that's quite outrageous.
The real problem that I think those of us who are evangelicals and Democrats have to face up to is that the political right controls the religious media.
What I see as the greatest threat to America is that the American people will put political pressure on their leaders to pull out of Iraq before we should.
What is al Qaeda? It's an open source religious political movement that works off the global supply chain.
Further-more, partisan attachments powerfully shape political perceptions, beliefs and values, and incumbents enjoy advantages well beyond the way in which their districts are configured.
You need some inequality to grow... but extreme inequality is not only useless but can be harmful to growth because it reduces mobility and can lead to political capture of our democratic institutions.
Liberals seem to assume that, if you don't believe in their particular political solutions, then you don't really care about the people that they claim to want to help.
I've learned by hanging out in Hollywood, where I disagree politically with most people, that most people's hearts are in the right place, and the only thing we have to argue about is the way to solve the problems.
