Actually, this is childishly easy to deconstruction. I'll take it one over-simplified point at a time. And I'll try to use short words that even a "loyal Bushie" can understand.

1) They never say what "winning" is.

2) Back in the day, they did say what "winning" was--Saddam out of power, no WMDs, a democratic government in Iraq--and by that criteria, we've already "won." So why are we still there?

3) What's really "standing by the troops?" Bringing them home and/or sending them someplace where they have clear goals (e.g., Afghanistan to find Osama bin Laden), or leaving them in the middle of a civil war?

4) Iraq already is an "unchecked den of terrorists," thanks to the failed policies of this bunch of boneheads. (Of course, their terrorist acts are tribe-against-tribe . . .) Has this crowd of "slow bleed" advocates failed to notice this inconvenient fact?

5) And finally, the Democrats aren't holding the funding hostage; it's the President who is doing so against the will of both the American people, the Iraqi people, and to the detriment of the troops under him.

We won the war. There are no WMDs. Saddam is dead. bin Laden is in Afghanistan. America wants its troops home. Iraq wants America out. Why on Earth are we still there?

One can't help but note the irony of an article lamenting the lost world of tomorrow . . . delivered via a medium that was scarcely imagined in the minds of Disch, Blish, Pohl, or Kornbluth. (Although Clarke--not atypically--was closest with his "Newspad" in "2001.")

Good heavens, Simon, you're hard to please; sure, we can't book vacations on the moon--a fact that disappoints me just as much as you--but we have cell phones that look just like Star Trek communicators, for crying out loud, and work even better! I mean, could Captain Kirk call up the latest Manchester United scores and highlights on his? And let's not forget all those Heinlein stories where Our Intrepid Hero is blasting off into space, frantically calculating his trajectories on his slide rule. What do you want, man; egg in your suds?

I want jet packs and mag-lev cars--hell, I'd settle for mag-lev trains--and regular super-sonic flights (or sub-orbitals) and robo-housekeepers, too. On the other hand, allow me to draw your attention to ATMs. And the home computer connected to the world-wide web (not forgetting wikipedia). And the burgeoning ability to control our brain chemistry and body health through both manufactured drugs and natural supplements. And GPS (on your cell phone, for crying out loud). Rapid overnight shipping that allows me to eat blackberries from South America in Austin in the middle of winter.

And if Big Physics is your thing, look to the Channel Tunnel. The Millau Viaduct. Tokyo's proposed Sky City. The efforts to refill the Aral Sea. And on and on.

But then, it's clear that you read a lot of Disch and Pohl and Burgess and the like, who are not exactly upbeat fellows. Maybe it's time for more Clarke, or some Stephenson (how about "The Diamond Age?"), or Banks, or Kim Stanley Robinson, perhaps? Maybe the future's not exactly what we thought it would be--when is it ever?--but every time I swipe my card through the slot at the gas station, and then watch a news clip on my cell phone while the gas is pumping, I have to admit that's it's a pretty amazing time to live, jet packs or no.

Allow me to chime in with my fellow Austinites regarding Amy's, where yes indeedy you can just enjoy the Ice Cream without the trimmings, but they also do the smash-ins as well. (I personally like the Junior Mints smashed in to the Dark Chocolate, but to each their own.)

You know Amy's is different because the folks doing the serving are classic Austinites to the point where one worker--heavily tatooed and pierced--told me when I asked that the TSA people questioned him every day when he came to work at the Amy's at Austin-Bergstrom Airport branch, even though he's there 3-4 days a week. At Amy's, they don't have Corporate Smiles; they have piercings and flavor recommendations ("No, no; try the Mexican Vanilla with the Reese Cups; that's what I like.").

But "Coldstone Creamery." I mean, what do you expect when a company names itself "Coldstone?" Yeesh.