The Shield "jumped the shark" at the end of the series pilot and I've never heard any of its fans ever talk about this. The tension in the program often involves wondering what Vic will do when the powers that be close in on him. Well... judging from the pilot, I have to think that "shoot them in the face" is an obvious answer. In the pilot episode Vic kills a fellow officer in cold blood, why? Because the cop was about to turn him in? Because he had evidence of corruption? NO! Because he'd been planted in the unit as a spy. The central character is established at the end of the first episode as a psychotic cop killer. Then we're expected to feel sympathy because he and his wife aren't getting along? Hey! Why not... shoot her in the face! Another detective getting a bit nosy? Um... shoot her in the face, that might work.

The series creators wanted to have a series revolve around a character like the one Denzel Washington played in Training Day, but they quickly realized that this is not going to work in series TV. So, they immediately turned to the model Dennis Franz created in NYPD Blue, except that character would never murder another cop (or even a criminal for that matter) in cold blood out of a need for nothing more than convenience.

The Shield is built on a flawed foundation. It is as if its fans bracket off that pilot and set it aside as an abberation.

Excuse me, but wouldn't another 9/11-sized attack on the US, also on Bush's watch, be sufficient evidence that a Republican controlled government is utterly incapable of protecting the country from attack? That said, would there be any leading Democrat bright enough to point that out?

Listen to "Nod Your Head" again. It is the most complex and amazing song on the record. It's being sung to someone who is too sick to get out of bed. It is being sung to a dying friend or lover. It's a song to Linda I think. What makes it so interesting is that it doesn't take the minor chord and strings approach of "Here Today," his song to John, which is the approach anyone would expect, not just Paul but anyone to take. No. Musically, it is the most aggressive, the most... ferocious track on this record, or maybe on any record he's ever done because it isn't just the fun (and at its best, thrilling) rocking aggression of songs like "Why Don't We Do It In The Road" "I'm Down" or his Little Richard tributes. The ferocity here is in the face of death.

It has in it all the emotional awe we experience if we've ever sat at the bedside of a dying friend. It is bloody magnificent.

For any anti-evolutionist seeking irrefutable evidence look no further than any internet discussion forum. Darwin wasn't only wrong, he had it backwards.