“Israel is the very embodiment of Jewish continuity: It is the only nation on earth that inhabits the same land, bears the same name, speaks the same language, and worships the same God that it did 3,000 years ago. You dig the soil and you find pottery from Davidic times, coins from Bar Kokhba, and 2,000-year-old scrolls written in a script remarkably like the one that today advertises ice cream at the corner candy store.” YearsTodayEarthNamesSpeakLanguageNationsWrittenLandBearsWorshipYears AgoScriptsIsraelCornersStoresBarsIceSoilCreamCoinsCandyIce CreamContinuityEmbodimentPotteryCandy Stores Author:Charles Krauthammer
“Courage is not a quality one normally associates with mathematicians. Yet it should apply to people who work in their attics in secret for seven years without cease on a problem that has eluded the greatest mathematical minds since first proposed in 1637.” PeopleShouldYearsMindFirstsProblemSecretQualitySevenCeaseMathematicalMathematicianAssociatesSeven YearsAttics Author:Charles Krauthammer
“In an essay 10 years ago, I pointed out that it is utterly logical for polygamy rights to follow gay rights. After all, if traditional marriage is defined as the union of (1) two people of (2) opposite gender, and if, as advocates of gay marriage insist, the gender requirement is nothing but prejudice, exclusion and an arbitrary denial of one's autonomous choices in love, then the first requirement - the number restriction (two and only two) - is a similarly arbitrary, discriminatory and indefensible denial of individual choice.” PeopleIfsYearsFirstsTwoChoicesIndividualNumbersRightsGayYears AgoOppositesPrejudiceUnionsGenderTraditionalDefinedDenialLogicalRequirementsEssaysArbitraryGay MarriageRestrictionGay RightsExclusionPolygamyAutonomousTraditional MarriageIndividual Choice Author:Charles Krauthammer
“I don't think you can pump carbon dioxide into the atmosphere indefinitely and not have a reaction. But there are great scientists such as Freeman Dyson, one of the greatest physicists of the last hundred years, who has studied the question, who believes quite the opposite. The reason transnational action is so difficult is because the major problem with climate change is, A, that there is no consensus, and, B, that the economic cost is simply staggering. Reversing it completely might mean undoing the modern industrial economy.” ThinkingYearsBelieveMeanReasonProblemMightActionLastsDifficultEconomyEconomicModernCostMajorsHundredOppositesScientistClimateClimate ChangeReactionsAtmosphereCarbonPhysicistConsensusPumpsStaggeringCarbon DioxideFreemanUndoingGreat ScientistMajor Problems Author:Charles Krauthammer
“There are cycles in American politics. US cycles are even more pronounced because we Americans have a totally entrepreneurial presidential system. We don't have parliamentary opposition parties with a shadow prime minister and shadow cabinets. Every four years, the opposition reinvents itself.” YearsPartyFourShadowMinistersPresidentialOppositionCyclesPrimeFour YearsPrime MinisterAmerican PoliticsEntrepreneurialCabinetsParliamentaryOpposition Parties Author:Charles Krauthammer
“The only reason the president insists on raising [tax] rates is because he knows it will destroy Republican unity, it will cause a complete fracture of the Republican majority in the house, it will hand him a Congress that he can then manipulate for the next two years at least because the Republicans will be neutered. ... This is entirely a political action, a way to get a surrender from the Republicans.” KnowsWayYearsTwoReasonHandsActionPoliticalNextHouseCausesPresidentRepublicanTaxesMajorityUnityRateCongressSurrenderTwo YearsManipulatePolitical ActionFractureRaising Taxes Author:Charles Krauthammer
“Every two years the American politics industry fills the airwaves with the most virulent, scurrilous, wall-to-wall character assassination of nearly every political practitioner in the country - and then declares itself puzzled that America has lost trust in its politicians.” YearsTwoCountryCharacterAmericaPoliticalPoliticsLostTrustWallIndustryPoliticianWittyTwo YearsDistrustAmerican PoliticsAssassinationPuzzledLove And TrustElection YearsElected LeadersCharacter AssassinationLost Trust Author:Charles Krauthammer
“I believe in what I believe, and I think after all these years I've heard a lot of arguments, and I'm convinced by the superiority of the arguments that are made on the conservative side. I think that's a better way to run a society.” ThinkingWayYearsBelieveMadeRunningI BelieveSidesHeardArgumentConservativeI Believe InConvincedSuperiorityBetter Ways Author:Charles Krauthammer
“If [Bush's] successors don't screw it up, within 10 years NASA will have us back to where we belong -- on other worlds.” IfsWorldYearsScrewsOther WorldsNasaSuccessors Author:Charles Krauthammer
“A three-year diet of rubber chicken and occasional crow.” YearsThreeDietsChickensThree YearsOccasionalCrowRubber Author:Charles Krauthammer
“There is no comparing the brutality and cynicism of today's pop culture with that of forty years ago: from High Noon to Robocop is a long descent.” YearsLongTodayCultureSocietyYears AgoPopsCompareFortyCynicismPop CultureBrutalityNoonDescentRobocop Author:Charles Krauthammer
