It's interesting that Radosh mentions Marilyn Manson, whose anti-Christian rock touched disturbed Christian children in much the same way. Kids just want some way to identify themselves, and for teenagers, the only two choices are obedience or rebellion. They latch onyo a big idea and declare themselves "for" or "against." But our corporate culture is far ahead of them, in its all-consuming drive for market share. So an idea like Christianity is basically nothing more than a brand; like your "local" NFL team or "supporting the president." Christian rock is Nike; Manson is Adidas; everyone spends all this money thinking they're making a statement by wearing one label or another, but none of these kids or their hypocritical parents can explain where their brand loyalty comes from, and none seem to realize they're all just being played for fools, whether by their caddy-driving ministers or the rock'n'roll singers dancing on their paychecks, as Beck put it.

Nothing's better than doing what you love - except, possibly, doing what you love on a beach, under an umbrella. If the whole world worked like that, there would be no war. Most people can't seem to summon the courage to work on a beach, but it's better that way: It wouldn't be any fun if everyone around you were working, too. And Garrison - God love ya - I dream about my work almost every night too, and I've been thinking it means I need to learn how to actually relax on vacation, rather than dreaming up new ways to perfect self-torment. You're the best we've got, when all of us need relaxation and dreamtime on our rainy drive home. Take a break and enjoy yourself. When vacations seem overly planned, it's time to call in sick. You deserve it.

I love Keillor's stuff and find it to be genuine.

And I laughed really hard reading the first paragraph of this piece, because I too was wondering at Sharon's girth. I've heard Israelis refer to him as a "tank with legs."

The only thing that boggles my mind is why any progressive would want Hastert to be President. I guess it boils down to a difference of opinion, but I don't see how a pro-life zealot who favors big business and tax breaks for the rich fits with the "common man" image Keillor's trying to paint.

There was no logical reason for the White House to circumvent the FISA court, if they were only interested in monitoring international calls. There seems to be this Leftist consensus that the neocons chose to eschew the legal process only to probe and expand the limits of their own power. Certainly, Bush's outright admission that he'd gone around the law looked like a big fuck-you to a cowering Congress. But they didn't want this publicized. It's all bluster. They don't have a legal leg to stand on. It's just that rabidly defending their actions is the only shrewd PR move, now that they've been outed -- and moreover, it's the only way for them to retain control of the debate in a way that might forestall exposure of the real reason for their extra-legal activities.

There are only two logical reasons for circumventing the quite efficient FISA court. They are:

1. There is simply so much wiretapping going on that it would be impossible to approve case by case, and,

2. Some of that wiretapping is happening domestically.

Read the Wikipedia page on "eschelon." The NSA program electronically surveils virtually all communication worldwide. Oh - except for domestic calls within the US. That would be unconstitutional.

QED: The NSA flipped the switch to monitor domestic calls as well. They can't strain them or sort them; they just grab all of them. That's why the Administration can't go to the court. What would they say? "Hey, we're wiretapping every phone in America. Is that okay?"

It's ironic, isn't it, that such an avowed Jew-hater as bin Laden sits in his cave and reads the books of a Jewish boy from the Bronx? That the interview was conducted by Scherer is even weirder. Now that Blum's book sales are vaulting past anything Scherer's ever done, I guess the hardliners will have a new favorite whipping boy to accuse of self-hatred.

Anyway, it's good to remember that the diaspora breed of intellectually honest, liberal, truth-seeking Jews still exists (of course, mostly in the blue states) -- and that apparently, if left to (our) devices, could quite readily come to peaceable terms with the other peoples of the world. But we're being beaten silly by the Zionist hawks, who want to impose their order with aid of all the old tricks they learned from the Germans. That's the "they" Blum's talking about.

We're the people of the shtetl, man. Not the fortified crusader state. We get burned out; we hang on. Of course we're a little paranoid, a little neurotic. And we're supposed to have bleeding hearts, because we've bled ourselves. But this whole boomer generation of American Jews grew up with -- how can we say it -- a very strong fear of being a nebbish. Their parents didn't speak such great English...so there was an impulse to assimilate, but also a level of shame there, because the holocaust made assimilation seem shameful. Then they saw "Exodus" and got wet dreams about Jews finally having guns and being able to defend ourselves. They turned hard right - (David Horowitz being a prime example) - now they're as radical as any nutjob Israeli settler (if having a much poorer grasp of the "optional" religion that accompanies the ethnicity.) Well, power corrupts; guns corrupt. For 3,000 years those of us who wanted take our learning and intellect and make peace, and blend in, have been fucked on both sides. One side by pillaging goyim, the other side by zealots who'd just as soon see us crucified. (Literally, on at least one notable occasion.)

"Love's the only engine of survival." That was said by man who understood what's really going on.