International: Ostriches

The difference between a confused intellectual and an ostrich is that the ostrich cannot manufacture its own sand.

Last week, beaky, squeaky François Mauriac, famed French Catholic poet, novelist, playwright and editorialist, ground out some highly refined sand for frightened Frenchmen to stick their heads in. Writing in the Paris daily Le Figaro, Mauriac insisted that he knew the difference "between the iron collar of a totalitarian state and a regime of freedom founded on the respect of the human person.

"It is not that which separates the U.S.S.R. from the U.S.A. which should frighten us," he added, "but rather that which...

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