Unfortunately for us lefties, conservatives will still vote for Republicans in 2006 and 2008. In spite of the implosion of the neocon adventures both at home and abroad, conservatives are still worried about swarthy Middle Easterners attacking us and they still believe that the only people capable of protecting them from the boogeymen are Republicans.

It's about time that the folks in power realize that there are repurcussions for their arrogant overreaching these past 5 years. I dare say that if the repurcussions hadn't started now, Bush's second term could have evolved into an overreach free-for-all.

Fitzgerald is the Bush Administration's anti-hubris.

My daughter is in the 8th grade. During elementary school, there were times when as an adult I perceived her homework burden to be excessive. Like Ayelet I spoke to her teacher - the solution was the same here as well - when a given assignment is too much, draw a line and move on.

I'm glad that we went through this heavy homework period. At 13 my child is far better organized and a far more diligent worker than I ever was in school. Homework is her job. She comes home, she has a snack, she does her homework and when the work is done she joins the rest of the family for whatever family activities are on the agenda.

I couldn't be more pleased with my daughter's overall discipline with regards to school, and I can't help but think that the homework in elementary school was an important contributing factor. I'd much rather have the school pushing a heavy work agenda with the option of "drawing a line through it" than a non-existent home-school relationship characterized by neglect.

What do you make of ?

The "apocalypse" or whatever we'd like to call it has always been just over the horizon - real or imagined - for all mankind forever. Remember, too, that we live in a world now where we understand that a solar eclipse isn't an omen of impending doom just as an earthquake isn't a punishment from an unhappy god.

In spite of this human beings have always looked forward, building civilizations and having children. This is the way it has always been and this is the way it is likely to always be. Eat drink and be merry for tomorrow we [may] die.

Reading science fiction might help pass the time, too.

Thanks for this.

Salon has been an irreplacable part of my life for well overhalf of its first ten years. I'm looking forward to the next ten.

Of course our wingnut friends are convinced that anti-war liberals on the home front lost the war in Vietnam for us and they will surely assign blame similarly with Iraq.

Tray-tables can be snapped into strong, sharp pieces.

Minor fact change:

Annie Jacobsen's misadventure and related coverage happened during the summer of 2004, not 2003 as it says in the article.

I wrote extensively about Jacobsen and the Arabs-who-Queued-in-the-Sky that summer. Here is an overview post with links to a great deal of previous coverage elsewhere:

http://www.liberalavenger.com/2005/09/annie-jacobsen-and-xenophobic-horror.html

Couldn't have happened to a nicer guy.

Asshole.

Zazoo is a Belgian company.

Cary's response to this question was clever and insightful. I wondered how the writer's question could be addressed. Cary rarely disappoints and this piece was exceptionally good.

The controversy today pushed the Oprah Book Club version of his book to #1 on Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0307276902/

...Ratso Rizzo with a beard.

Joe:

You're well known for your brilliant work in this field. Seriously. The Hunting of the President was a masterpiece. You're not afraid of hard work. What's keeping you from hopping on the Acela and heading down to DC and confronting Scotty M. and twisting his arm?

Obviously about 40%+ of the country.

When are they going to figure out that it really is safe to go to the mall?

I'm sick of Juan Cole and I'm sick of Salon.com for giving him a public forum to espouse his Jew-hating ideas. It's not enough to say that there should be balance here by providing an alternative view-point alongside his. Sometimes some people, no matter how articulate they are or how distinguished their resume is, should be told that their bigotry should be left at home.

Because Juan Cole refuses to simply dismiss Hamas as "savages" he's a "Jew-hater"?

Juan Cole is clearly on the side of seeing the Israel/Palestine conflict through to a peaceful resolution. The Jaw-Hater label is inaccurate and unfair.

Oh well.

As a loyal constituent of Kennedy in Massachusetts I could never stop loving the old fool. I'll always love his bright red face and his kind words and his generally consistent stance on the side of all things liberal.

Somebody at Salon wrote a piece last week about the Dems and the Alito hearings called "The Gang that Couldn't Shoot Straight." How wonderfully true.

Conservatives/Republicans/Wingnuts probably do have the market cornered on contemporary evil, but you've got to concede that they are really, really good at sowing it.

Our side, god love 'em, seems to be waiting for something cosmic to happen before they get their acts together.

Neo-conservatism is a probablem that has to be solved. Unfortunately, our current set of Democratic warriors simply isn't equipped to solve it.

Liberal, born and bred in Massachusetts, my enthusiastic vote for Kerry in November, 2004 was really a vote against Bush.

While the WORST things the wingnuts and swift-boaters said about Kerry were disgraceful and untrue, it's difficult to give continued, passionate support for the man. Yes, John Kerry really does suck - hard.

While I "get" why he is talking about running for President again in 2008, I sure hope that he doesn't.

Please, John. Let us lefties find somebody else to suck on our behalf the next time around.

...is the funniest I've ever seen here!

I'm glad I stopped by.

I enjoyed this, Cary!