Gluttony and idleness are two of life's great joys, but they are not honourable.

Gluttony and idleness are two of life's great joys, but they are not honourable.

It may be a cliche, but it's true - the build-up to Christmas is so much more pleasurable than the actual day itself.

It may be a cliche, but it's true - the build-up to Christmas is so much more pleasurable than the actual day itself.

A good part - and definitely the most fun part - of being a feminist is about frightening men.

A good part - and definitely the most fun part - of being a feminist is about frightening men.

What sort of sap doesn't know by now that picture-perfect beauty is all done with smoke and mirrors anyway?

What sort of sap doesn't know by now that picture-perfect beauty is all done with smoke and mirrors anyway?

Tears are sometimes an inappropriate response to death. When a life has been lived completely honestly, completely successfully, or just completely, the correct response to death's perfect punctuation mark is a smile.

Tears are sometimes an inappropriate response to death. When a life has been lived completely honestly, completely successfully, or just completely, the correct response to death's perfect punctuation mark is a smile.

It has been said that a pretty face is a passport. But it's not, it's a visa, and it runs out fast.

It has been said that a pretty face is a passport. But it's not, it's a visa, and it runs out fast.

To be sure, the Trump administration is shot through with corruption.

Trump is reviled around the world, as is the U.S. under his leadership.

America after Trump may be more like the European Union; a rambling alliance of interstate compacts, rather than the forced marriage of a country that emerged after the Civil War.

Hillary Clinton's time in the Senate indicates she is happier being a policy workhorse than a show horse.

Trump is, in every way, the anti-Obama.

The presidency is, in many ways, America's comment on itself; our collective national costume. In the occupant of our sole nationwide elected office, we see who we think we are, or who we want to be.

Protest is, at its core, designed to move policy.

The criminal justice system in the United States is designed to do two things really well: to railroad black and brown bodies into prison, and to keep police officers out of it.

Republicans don't vote Republican because of Nancy Pelosi. They vote Republican because they are Republicans.

It is uncomfortable in the extreme for people, and particularly for members of the press, to confront the notion that a president could be so far outside the bounds of tradition that he must be treated differently from his predecessors.

Our love of Hollywood-style glamour helped elect two presidents: JFK and Reagan, who fulfilled the prophecy that a country so enamored of actors would eventually make one their president.

The Hollywood of Frank Capra's era, when Reagan became a minor star, sold the world an image of American pith and patriotism in many ways as defining as the moon landing or the A-bomb.