I agree with Ms. Traister. God knows the conspiracy stuff on the X-Files got convoluted, ponderous, and really hard to follow. It never got satisfactorily resolved either which was perhaps by design or the fact that the show simply had run out of gas. The most disappointing aspect of the show for me was when Mulder returned from wherever he had gone to and the two proceeded to explore the romantic aspect of their relationship, something fans had been clamoring for obviously. I suppose you could argue that it was a natural progression considering everything that they'd been through together that after loving each other for so long that they should be lovers, but I always felt that it didn't serve the relationship particularly well. It may make a kind of sense, but I'd always applauded Chris Carter for resisting that impulse to feed the long held notion that the only relationship option for a man and a woman is romance=sex=marriage. That notion continues to be fed by the Hollywood entertainment machine even today in the early 21st century, although it's broadened the parameters a bit more. The X-Files was groundbreaking in showing that a man and a woman can have a deep, meaningful, and close friendship without necessarily having sex. At the end, when Mulder and Scully presumably crossed that line, it felt like a sell-out to more conservative (and may I say restrictive) perceptions. I would suggest that this deep friendship was the beating heart of the show. Besides that, it was damned creepy fun! All of that weighty philosophy, intellectualism, chemistry and intimacy, AND it succeeded in scaring the bejeezus out of you every week. It's amazing it lasted as long as it did. Having said that, when it ended, I think Chris Carter and everyone else was just TIRED. It may explain why we've not heard from him in a while. Until now with this trip down memory lane arriving in theaters tomorrow.

I think any notion that we are in somehow less trouble in Afghanistan is a fantasy foisted upon us courtesy of the Bush Administration. Because Afghanistan has been left to basically fester, the renewed focus there is going to be problematic in any case, and if not managed properly, another quagmire for an Obama or a McCain administration. We're not going to be able to ride in cowboy style and quickly bring the Taliban and others to heel. Not without help. And given the lingering wounds to our relations with our allies, we may not get the help we need so readily. With that said, I still believe Obama has, or will come to the better judgement about how to fight this war. To the degree that he can get Pakistan and others to cooperate with us to catch (or kill) Osama bin Laden, root out al Qaeda, and defeat the Taliban, he has a chance to end this in relatively smooth fashion.

It has always been about the attempts of the rich and powerful few to thwart the rest of the populace from having even a chance at a decent life. It has always been about power, because power allows you to keep wealth. Small government is just a tag line. The GOP never wanted that. They wanted just enough government to protect their own interests and the hell with everyone else. Let Fannie and Freddie go to hell. Let the banks fail and the economy rot away. The Republicans have done a very nice job of making sure government works for them, not anyone else. And by them, we mean the richest of them, so even your garden variety middle-class conservative is getting the shaft. The fix has been in for 25 years now. This is how it ends. With good God-fearing Republicans paying through the nose for electricity and getting NOTHING for it. Barack Obama may actually win TX, but even if he doesn't, a whole lot of fed-up folks in the Lone Star State could make John McCain shit his Depends.

I have a few recent copies of the New Yorker in the back seat of my car. There's one where someone is going naked through a surveillance system at the airport that seems prescient. Seems that soon the media was all aflutter with these new scanning machines that could x-ray the very orfices in your body. I get the humor and I think I might like to read more of this magazine. I get the cover of this most recent issue as well. It's that roll-your-eyes, snarky, droll sort that says "Who is actually STUPID ENOUGH to believe that Barack Obama is a Muslim terrorist wannabe and his wife is a 60s style black revolutionary? Really, who?"

Imagine a shy little hand going up.

Put your hand down!

Go back to Dubuque.

Of course, the New Yorker must know full well that there's well above 10% of the population that is stupid enough to believe it. So if insulting not intelligence, but blind unquestioning, and unapologetic non-think is the point, then it succeeds. Sort of. Obviously, the non-think crowd will disagree.