Quotes from Timothy Noah

The only agency of the federal government with a more demoralized workforce than Homeland Security is the Small Business Administration, a notorious turkey farm that should have been abolished years ago.

The Kurds were the only people in Iraq who were completely unguarded in expressing their gratitude to the United States for setting them free.

Whenever a Kurd wants to measure the depth of some foreign leader's commitment to Kurdish autonomy, he listens for one particular word. That word is 'federal.' Anyone who will say he favors Kurdish federalism can be counted a friend of the Kurds.

We all need to save money to send our kids to college, to buy our first house, and to retire. But the truth is that most of us don't save very much.

The argument most commonly made in the filibuster's favor is crudely partisan: 'Our side may be in the majority now, but someday it will be in the minority, and when that happens we'll want to block the other side's extremist agenda.'

The Clinton administration cared a lot about the middle class and the poor. But it also cared a lot - too much, in retrospect - about the rich.

I've come to the conclusion that the government needs to impose price controls on tuition increases - and so, I think, has President Obama.

Sometime, while I wasn't paying attention, trickle-down economics got respectable.

The typical family of four with employer-based health insurance is not the same as the typical family of four. It's better-off.

Ultimate success for a carbon tax would mean so complete a shift to renewable energy that the tax would stop raising much revenue at all.

Washington is a place where politics and economics often aren't on speaking terms.

The embourgeoisement of China's proletariat may be the inevitable result of its industrialization, but 'inevitable' isn't the same as 'speedy.'

Spoken language's elaborate rhythms and inflections convey more meaning per word than the printed word.

Whatever the reason, American Muslims appear far less inclined to support the global jihad than their European counterparts.

Bottom line: A market approach to national defense would give us a lousy national defense.

Inequality doesn't create unhappiness.

The chief purpose of a union is to maximize the income of its members.

If one does not wish to take the word of journalists, human rights groups, and the United Nations that Iraq conducted a deliberate campaign to eradicate the Kurdish population, there's always the word of the Iraqis themselves.

One of the enduring mysteries of America's occupation of Iraq is why a nation that so little relishes peacekeeping nonetheless refuses to turn the job over to the United Nations.

Electing Barack Obama president was a glorious Jackie Robinson moment for the United States of America. Obama didn't just win; he became the first Democrat since Jimmy Carter to win a popular-vote majority.

Universities are basically socialist institutions.

Some liberals think that describing any role that education gaps play in creating income inequality is some sort of sellout - that, in essence, you're telling the middle class, 'Tough luck; you should have stayed in college.'

With its Medicaid expansion, Obamacare may turn out to be the most equality-promoting policy enacted in a generation.

Everyone agrees that animals should not be exposed to unnecessary pain. But neither should scientists be hamstrung by the requirement to use anesthesia in every animal experiment that might cause pain.