For centuries the death penalty often accompanied by barbarous refinements has been trying to hold crime in check yet crime persists. Why? Because the instincts that are warring in man are not as the law claims constant forces in a state of equilibrium.

Barack Obama's life was so much simpler in 2009. Back then he had refined the cold act of blaming others for the bad economy into an art form. Deficits? Blame Bush's tax cuts. Spending? Blame the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. No business investment? Blame Wall Street.

We were astonished by the beauty and refinement of the art displayed by the objects surpassing all we could have imagined - the impression was overwhelming.

He has only half learned the art of reading who has not added to it the more refined art of skipping and skimming.

Courtesy is a silver lining around the dark clouds of civilization it is the best part of refinement and in many ways an art of heroic beauty in the vast gallery of man's cruelty and baseness.