I can tolerate punishment for thought crime, but I draw the line at rehabilitation.
Jan 112021
Ruling
In ’37 Stalin made a hash
Of party loyalists and army brass.
Decimation: One in ten are shot.
What’s the word when one in ten are not?
Jan 072021
It doesn’t matter much which books you burn.
Jan 062021
Sympathizers and apologists are first to be sent to the camps. Intransigent opponents are left at large for a while, as a sign of the liberality of the regime and a reminder that stricter measures will be required.
Jan 042021
When the numbers don’t come out as you would like, the first resort is to change the way you count; the second is to stop counting.
Dec 302020
The distinguished Soviet geneticist Vavilov was unpersoned for refusing to reject heredity in favor of the neo-Lamarckism championed by Lysenko and Stalin, and I feel fortunate to live in a country where nothing like that could ever happen.
Dec 212020
Petty laws embolden volunteer policemen.
Dec 032020
The omnipotent state regards not the individual, but the family, as its most dangerous enemy. The individual it can use; the family it can do nothing with.
Nov 202020
Every new law represents a new opportunity to report our neighbors anonymously to the authorities.
Nov 132020
Censorship, under more competent rule, would indicate something worth reading.
Nov 112020
Americans are ruled by a government that intrudes in every conceivable matter yet cannot count its population, its votes, or its dead.