It is hard as an American to support the failure of American military operations in Iraq. Such failure will bring with it the death and wounding of many American service members and many more Iraqis.

I think I've always been somebody since the deaths of my father and brother who was afraid to hope. So I was more prepared for failure and for rejection than for success.

Failure? Scared to death of it.

When we are dealing with death we are constantly being dragged down by the event: Humor diverts our attention and lifts our sagging spirits.

I start thinking about life after death. I've got to quit thinking about it because it's very deep. Very deep. Sometimes you start thinking about it and you don't feel like you want to be alive so I don't like to get all quiet.

What we think of as our sensitivity is only the higher evolution of terror in a poor dumb beast. We suffer for nothing. Our own death wish is our only real tragedy.

So here is one of my theories on happiness: we cannot know if we have lived a truly happy life until the very end. This view of life and death was reinforced by my close witnessing of the buildup to the death of Philip Gould. Philip was without doubt my closest friend in politics. When he died I felt like I had lost a limb.

I'm not on the run from anything and I'm not at all clear about what I'm running towards. But as some great writer put it I want to be certain that when I arrive at death I'm totally exhausted.

Planning to play: that's what saving for retirement is today - and it is antithetical to the nature of play fully within the definition of work and blissfully ignorant of the reality of death.

I was in two episodes playing Christopher Reeve's character's emissary. They wanted to have my character announce Dr Swan's death which I thought was exploitative.

The death penalty is being applied in the United States as a fatal lottery.

As a reward for their efforts however those early Christians were beaten stoned to death thrown to the lions tortured and crucified. Every conceivable method was used to stop them from talking.

I think that much of this was running in background as I contemplated whether or not to attend the PS 99 reunion although I certainly anticipated that I would not it smelled like death not youth.

Depakote also has a really bad side effect which is death.

Death is a very important part of life.

If you think aficionados of a living Constitution want to bring you flexibility think again. You think the death penalty is a good idea? Persuade your fellow citizens to adopt it. You want a right to abortion? Persuade your fellow citizens and enact it. That's flexibility.

Most of the debate over the cultures of death and life is about process. The debate focuses on the technology available to determine how we prolong life and how and when we end it.