Dark Bilious Vapors

(or at least my sources attribute it to Santayana) is the famous, He who does not learn from history is doomed to repeat it (or some variant thereof; it seems that the actual quote is lost among all the variations). While this bon mot is the obvious first thought one gets on reading William Saletan's Slate article yesterday (Magical History Tour: Bush can't learn from history if he can't see it), listening to Bush's "stay the course" rhetoric on his failed venture in Iraq reminds me of another Santayana quote which I think should be better known than it is: A fanatic is one who, upon losing sight of his goals, redoubles his efforts.

Len on 05.26.04 @ 07:49 AM CST