The profession of shaman has many advantages. It offers high status with a safe livelihood free of work in the dreary, sweaty sense. In most societies it offers legal privileges and immunities not granted to other men. But it is hard to see how a man who has been given a mandate from on High to spread tidings of joy to all mankind can be seriously interested in taking up a collection to pay his salary; it causes one to suspect that the shaman is on the moral level of any other con man. But it's lovely work if you can stomach it.

The phrase 'we (I) (you) simply must -' designates some thing that need not be done. 'That goes without saying' is a red warning. 'Of course' means you had bes…

The second best thing about space travel is that the distances involved make war very difficult, usually impractical, and almost always unnecessary. This is pr…

The most preposterous notion that H. sapiens has ever dreamed up is that the Lord God of Creation, Shaper and Ruler of all the Universes, wants the saccharine …

Fate quello che noi diciamo e non quello che noi facciamo.

Our president is a Christian? So was Adolf Hitler.

It is a very great mistake to imagine that the object of loyalty is the authority and interest of one individual man, however dignified by the applause or enri…