I bear a charmed life.

We've been sitting at the compromise table for a long time. We're just waiting for that cold chair to be warmed up by the Republican leadership. They still have time to do the right thing and be responsible. They just seem to be moving further and further away from it.

You have already disarmed my men without my knowledge are their arms to be returned or not?

Knowledge is a weapon. I intend to be formidably armed.

Humour is the weapon of unarmed people: it helps people who are oppressed to smile at the situation that pains them.

A lot of people because of my contempt for the false consolations of religion think of me as a symbolic public opponent of that in extremis. And sometimes that makes me feel a bit alarmed to be the repository of other people's hope.

We also have to make sure our children know the history of women. Tell them the rotten truth: It wasn't always possible for women to become doctors or managers or insurance people. Let them be armed with a true picture of the way we want it to be.

Our government has made a number of promises to the men and women who served in our nation's armed forces. Sadly these promises of health care education and other benefits have existed more in rhetoric than in reality.

Memorial Day this year is especially important as we are reminded almost daily of the great sacrifices that the men and women of the Armed Services make to defend our way of life.

The great object is that every man be armed.