This posting is typical of the kind of reasoning that keeps the status quo in place. Or at least has in the past. The past, though, is not going to be much of a guide to future realities unless we look at different historical phenomena.

The cart does not pull the horse, and though the tail, at least metaphorically, can wag the dog, the dog is about to resume doing the wagging.

Political entities - legislative, executive, judicial, propaganda outlets - can become self-reinforcing and self-perpetuating cancerous growths on the society, but their true purpose, the one they pretend to serve, must be pursued eventually. We are now in a situation where the ruling party has achieved complete corruption and sociopathic criminality. They are a cancer upon the entire planet. This is at a time when real problems that have to be solved are instead denied, ignored, deflected, and thereby worsened.

We have to solve the problems of climate change, environmental degradation, starvation, disease, overpopulation, economic unsustainability, war mongering,and kleptocracy. Instead, we have the Bush crime family, a war mongering kleptocracy itself.

As Hurricane Katrina showed us last year, pretending problems don't exist can have dire consequences. Since we are doing nothing about climate change, nothing about environmental degradation, nothing about economic unsustainability, and nothing about a host of other serious problems, they will all get worse. Whether it is Democrats or Republicans holding power, if the nature of governance does not change, then we are lost. By this I mean lost as a species.

Therefore, at some point we will have to choose not to be lost as a species, or we will cease to be. I'd like to see the spreadsheet program that can overcome this reality. Maybe, through the magic of gerrymandering and Diebold election flipping, a Shangri-la can be brought into being. In such a Shangri-la, toads can fly and idiots become kings. We're halfway there.

None of these three professional funny men were ever A grade, like Groucho Marx, Charlie Chaplin, Ernie Kovacs, or even Steve Allen. I got some laughs from all three, but it didn't take long before they became redundant, formulaic, and tiresome.

Albert Brooks, of course, ran out of material first. Woody Allen's creepiness crept in around the time he became America's most notorious "short eyes." With Steve Martin, I think his biggest problem is his familiarity. He's a guy who tries to be funny, rather than actually being funny.

It's worth mentioning that Robin Williams is even more tiresome, a relentless ham who forces his humor in every situation. Jim Carrey is tiresome for the same reason. What this all points out is the great difficulty in being a comedian. I suspect that if one were to spend an evening filled with laughs, a night out with Goldie Hawn, Bette Midler, or Jack Nicholson would be a hoot. I would love to have been a fly on the wall when Nicholson and Warren Beatty were smoking it up in their younger days.

Maybe clarity is not always desirable, but I had trouble figuring out the point of this article. It seemed to be about Austin, with the "Prairie Home Companion" movie as the backdrop, but was probably intended to be the other way around.

Whatever it was about, it made me keep the movie in mind for future viewing. I met Garrison Keillor a couple of times, and have been to shortened versions of his show. He's the real deal, able to bring acting skills out of the most ordinary people, the same person in private as in public. He has done much to keep middle America from the grasp of the cultural/political straight-jacketeers of corporate America. That is probably what brought Robert Altman's attention.

Austin's great too, a good energy town. That it gave us Bush is not Austin's fault. Anyplace has the same vulnerability.

It is sometimes amazing and often gratifying that, in this critical time in history, Salon rises to the challenge consistently and tenaciously to provide journalism at the highest standard of excellence. It's the only news service I pay for, and I am a happy customer.

By the way, if anyone on the planet has the wherewithal to find a different picture of Zacharias Moussaui, I expect to see it first on Salon. It can't come too soon.