Robert Gates

Jim's doctor asked if he was a light, moderate or heavy drinker. Jim asked what her definition of a moderate drinker was. She said a moderate drinker has 1 to 2 drinks a week. Jim changed doctors.

Equating political stability with democracy isn't necessarily clear thinking. It tends to serve imperial tendencies and the arms trade. The past ambassador to a small Pacific nation believed Italy to be an ancient nation. When he was told at the dinner table that Italy was a much younger nation than his own, he said, "but what about Rome?"

The scandal was about almost nothing, as usual, a diversion from horrors elsewhere. The governor, sweating profusely, promised to appoint an independent commission and issue a report. In previous decades the tactic might have worked but polls indicated the people wanted truth from their elected officials and believed that honesty is the best policy.

Asked what he was proudest of in his brilliant career, the American statesman Robert Gates answered, "the surge in Iraq."