Gems from the Style section

Commentary from the Style section of the Washington Post is often hard to beat. Here's a couple of examples from today's edition:

One of the striking revelations, as past and present officials of the FBI, CIA and Justice Department testified before the Sept. 11 commission, was just how many secrets those agencies possess without knowing it -- and how many secrets they don't know that they don't know.
--article by David Montgomery, entitled "Top Secret-Keepers: What They Don't Know Can Hurt You"

"When I say something, I mean it," George W. Bush said decisively near the end of last night's prime-time presidential news conference. Nobody called out, "When will you say something?" -- the White House press corps is too mannerly for that -- but some reporters, and some viewers, must have been thinking it.
--lead of the article by television critic Tom Shales

Or this, more worrying, also from Shales:

In contrast to the emotionless delivery of his prepared remarks, during the Q&A Bush appeared passionate at times, answering journalists' questions with an almost religious fervor. Bush said that freedom was given to Americans by "the Almighty" and encouraging freedom throughout the world is "what we have been called to do." Later he said, "It's a conviction that's deep in my soul."

Isn't the mixing of earthly political concerns with religious beliefs one of the things that thwarts and frustrates the United States and its allies in the Middle East?

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