Christianity began as a religion of the poor and dispossessed - farmers, fishermen, Bedouin shepherds. There's a great lure to that kind of simplicity and rigor - the discipline, the call to action.

I've been a longtime admirer of Condoleezza Rice, because I like her articulateness and style - her toughness and rigor.

Leftism should be about the people. That's how it began.

In the theory of gender I began from zero. There is no masculine power or privilege I did not covet. But slowly, step by step, decade by decade, I was forced to acknowledge that even a woman of abnormal will cannot escape her hormonal identity.

I regard affirmative action as pernicious - a system that had wonderful ideals when it started but was almost immediately abused for the benefit of white middle-class women.

Uncritical American boosterism - automatic endorsement of every government action - is myopic and self-defeating.