Please excuse my absence: just got done with a hunger strike against the Oprah Conglomerate. Didn't get any press. Don't really have any particular place to jump into the conversation, so I'll pontificate until my fingers get tired. Diana: thanks for the slice of relaxation at the car wash. If the city is your house, the car wash is the powder room: the place to go to get some privacy and wash up. Everything about this war feels wrong. When people say how much of a threat the Iraqi powers are, it reminds me of Kennedy trying to garner support for US action in Cuba from the Mexican ambassador. He replied that if he tried to tell the Mexican people that Cuba was a threat to America, 40 million Mexicans would die of laughter. Must admit, I've never seen the news services so dedicated to their national cause. There've been a few debates over the morality/necessity of US action, but by and large, the debates are bracketed by questions of when and how and avoid questions of if-at-all. One afternoon in 2001, I sat watching Foxnews when that guy, John (something) with blond, spikey hair, and horned-rimmed glasses had a call-in show. They were discussing US/Isreali policy. So I got through and asked if the problem couldn't be curtailed if we sold arms to the Palistinians as well, after all, if you want two angry kids to quit fighting, you don't give one a baseball bat and tie the other's hands. He said "Oh, a conspiracy theorist..." and went to the next caller. The presuppositions are already in place--the media conglomerates just have to make sure their moderators hold the party line.