proofs of existence

Until a person has changed his mind, there has been little demonstration that he even has one.

[In the way that intelligent people can and conservatives cannot, Brad DeLong reconsidered a long held belief...this was my inspiration.]

When the crunch comes, when performance has been promised...

John McCain who dares dangle before the undecided voters the allegation that Obama is "not ready to lead", is himself not even ready to talk.

And he was so insistent on having debates only a few short weeks ago.

One nice thing about the 21st century: with all its instant communications and internet broadcasting of every little bit of news, your lies come back to haunt you a lot faster than in the 20th century.

Mother Teresa was all for creating the problems she spent her life solving...

I think it is a fine, and fortunately not too rare, human capcity to look upon wretched starving neighbors who are dying of hunger and disease and rather than shuning or fearing them, to be ready to spend your last cent on their betterment and to say to each suffering one "Your death is not necessary. This should not be your fate".

I do.  I really think there are people whose strongest inclination is toward such altruism.  And when we meet such people, we duely call them saints.

But a more complete and dispassionate vision would never lead us to a world with a permanent excess of souls.  We need that saint that can also say "The child you might bear is not necessary".