Deviants and criminals, given the chance, will dwell endlessly on their own deviance and criminality. Repression at least obliges them to change the subject.
Mar 092020
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?
Mar 062020
To tyrannize over a people it is necessary to humiliate them, and nothing is more humiliating than declaring normal acts heinous crimes.
Mar 052020
A nation that regards speech as the fundamental liberty is a nation unable to keep its mouth shut.
Mar 042020
The loss of America’s appetite for full-on war has whetted it for petty military adventure.
Feb 272020
It is perfectly possible to hate people without killing them, and vice versa.
Feb 172020
Sentence first — verdict afterwards — reasons last of all.
Feb 132020
Witch-hunts work especially well among people who are too sophisticated to believe in witches.
Feb 042020
It is always important, in evaluating a policy, to consider how many people you will have to kill to implement it.
Jan 312020
Government, though it never depends on the consent of the governed, often depends on large numbers of the governed believing that it does.
Jan 272020
For every hundred ringing declarations in favor of freedom of speech or the press there are none in favor of freedom of association.