According to Richard Clarke, the former White House counterterrorism chief, Bush was so obsessed with Iraq that he failed to take action against Osama Bin Laden despite repeated warnings from his intelligence experts. – Ferdinand Mount
We are also further than ever from equality of opportunity. – Ferdinand Mount
For all its terrible faults, in one sense America is still the last, best hope of mankind, because it spells out so vividly the kind of happiness that most people actually want, regardless of what they are told they ought to want. – Ferdinand Mount
One of the unsung freedoms that go with a free press is the freedom not to read it. – Ferdinand Mount
For 13 to be unlucky would require there to be some kind of cosmic intelligence that counts things that humans count and that also makes certain things happen on certain dates or in certain places according to whether the number 13 is involved or not (whatever is involved might mean). – Douglas Hofstadter