Tony Snow

Sometimes, political campaigns make decent people act and talk like perfect buffoons.

Yet, it ought to be obvious that good music generally occupies a higher plane that mere politics. Great writers can express moods through melody and capture experiences we share most powerfully - love, lust, longing; joy, rage, fear; triumph, yearning and confusion.

Well, we can't afford blindness anymore. There are tens of thousands of thugs who loathe liberty and love death, and want to annihilate Western civilization.

We've got to rebuild human hearts - and persuade people that hope isn't just possible, but essential.

We live in an anaesthetized society.

Today there are about 40 million retirees receiving benefits; by the time all the baby boomers have retired, there will be more than 72 million retirees drawing Social Security benefits.

To have faith is to believe in truth, believe that truth confers special power on those lucky enough to get a little insight, and to know in our hearts that all these things come from God, which is why we should never get too cocky about our successes.

There is no Senate rule governing the proper uses of the filibuster.

The United States spends more money on African aid than any nation on earth.

The real sin with Social Security is that it's a long-term rip-off and a short-term scam.

The art of being sick is not the same as the art of getting well.

That said, ID does not qualify as science because it gives us nothing to test or measure. Science requires replicable tests involving measurable variables.

Sure, science involves trial and error. Scientists refine theories each day. But as they do, they help us grasp more clearly the wonders of the world and the universe.

Somewhere near you, somebody right now is trying to help the indigent and poor - providing food, shelter, clothing or simple kindness.

Many people don't give a rip about politics and know as much about public affairs as they know about the topography of Pluto.

It serves notice that President Bush is serious about promoting freedom, because free societies are a lot more peaceable than dictatorships and monarchies.

It makes no sense to pack an auditorium with 5,000 people and then tell them to keep quiet.

It is a common mistake these days to politicize anything and everything, including music.

Investigators have discovered that dogs can laugh, which can't be too big of a surprise.

In other words, Social Security is every bit as insecure as the stock market.

George W. Bush broke a mold four years ago: Even though he lost the popular vote, he governed as if he had won by acclamation.

Every one of our greatest national treasures, our liberty, enterprise, vitality, wealth, military power, global authority, flow from a surprising source: our ability to give thanks.

Voting is a right best exercised by people who have taken time to learn about the issues.

If you think Independence Day is America's defining holiday, think again. Thanksgiving deserves that title, hands-down.

We believe. We believe in our destiny as a nation. We believe we have been called to do good, to spread the blessings of liberty and encourage the sense of trust upon which free societies depend.