I don't want to get into the 'who's a hostage-taker' discussion here but what is the estate tax? It's a double tax on death. Economists will tell you that it's really not a tax that soaks the rich but it's a tax on capital that deprives business investment and therefore job creation.

Such discussions help us very little to enjoy what has been well done in art or poetry to discriminate between what is more and what is less excellent in them or to use words like beauty excellence art poetry with a more precise meaning than they would otherwise have.

I think that the U.S. does have this very much more open attitude and I admire it very much and I think it's very important to the world. But the information and the discussion sometimes come too late after the effective decision has been made.

I want art to make me think. In order to do that it may piss me off or make me uncomfortable. That promotes awareness and change or at least some discussion.

Any work of architecture that has with it some discussion some polemic I think is good. It shows that people are interested people are involved.

We are losing sight of civility in government and politics. Debate and dialogue is taking a back seat to the politics of destruction and anger and control. Dogma has replaced thoughtful discussion between people of differing views.

Discussion is an exchange of knowledge an argument an exchange of ignorance.

More and more couples are having this negotiation or discussion but I'm still amazed at the number who aren't and where the cultural norm sort of kicks in and they just assume that mom's got to be the one who stays home not dad.