The idiots always rose to the top and made policy. It explained a lot of things. - Jack McDevitt

So we have progressed to the point where we can move politicians around faster than light. I'm not sure I see the advantage.

The impending collision out there somewhere in the great dark between a gas giant and a world very much like our own has some parallels to the eternal collision between religion and common sense. One is bloated and full of gas, and the other is measurable and solid. One engulfs everything around it, and the other simply provides a place to stand. One is a rogue destroyer that has come in out of the night, and the other is a warm well-lighted place vulnerable to the sainted mobs.

He was usually easygoing, one of those guys with little respect for authority because of a conviction that people in charge tend to do stupid things.