"The problem is our preoccupation with the sexual behaviour of the young.
"Is America wallowing in its own obsessions or are our preoccupations shared by the world?
In fact, returning to the No. 1 slot in worldwide college attainment should not be our central preoccupation.
"The national interest is our first preoccupation.
My friend Catherine Menninger sent me a note the other day that began: "The days are long past when the poison of DU (depleted uranium) was our shared preoccupation.
"The genuine risk to our party comes if we allow it to appear that these are our first preoccupations," he said.
"It is not our preoccupation that other states accept us," Mr. Boumana said.
"I'm against our preoccupation, and how judgments about attractiveness spill over into judgments about competence and job performance.
It's not so much our preoccupation with LOLCat photos or videos of fat girls flying off of swings that concerns him as it is the way we read and consume information on the Internet itself.
Although set in the future, Owen's play is a satire on our preoccupation with surfaces.
