Once, in a lost age of valor, there was a band of knights who protected a teeming, prosperous village. Cruel and jealous barbarians dwelt in the forests around the village, and for many years they were kept at bay by the knights.

But over the years the knights became complacent, and seeing this, the barbarians altered their tactics. First they waited until the knights were playing courtly games of fencing and debate, and while these games played on the barbarians stole the knights' horses.

"It matters not," replied the knights when they discovered this loss. "We can travel as well by foot." Yet the barbarians were soon able to outpace the knights.

Next, the barbarians waited until the knights were at a fete, and they descended on the armory and stole the knights weapons.

"It matters not", replied the knights again. "They are brutish and unskilled people, and surely shall only hurt themselves with the weapons." Yet the barbarians quickly became skilled with the weapons instead.

Growing ever bolder, the barbarians next stole the exquisitely trained courier birds of the knights, while the knights were busy composing sonnets.

"It matters not," came the knights reply once more. "Their words are coarse and ignorant, and no matter how far they scatter their message, no reasonable person shall heed them." Yet soon the messages of the barbarians were repeated across the land, while the knights' own words went largely unheard.

In their final bit of subterfuge, the barbarians came and took away the knights' armors and blazons while the knights sat quietly at home.

"It matters not," came the last reply of the knights. "Our strength of purpose and our clarity of vision is all the protection we need."

Yet the day came when the barbarians moved at last against the village. Astride the stolen horses, bearing stolen weapons, spreading their word through stolen messengers, and arrayed in stolen armor under a stolen flag, they quickly asserted themselves over the villagers. And the now-naked knights, who had long conserved their power for this moment when it was at last time to strike, found they had nothing to offer in resistance.

And so it was that the village was lost, failed by its protectors, who saw every defeat as a triumph and who trusted that being right is itself enough.

The majority of the previous posters are spot-on when they call this women out as a clinically depressed narcissist. Indeed, I'd go further and say that she's more likely to be a strong bipolar, since they are more often the ones to carry out impetuous actions (like the affair) and to write in such florid prose.

Believe me on this, as I know someone with these same DSM-IV conditions who laments the dissolution of her own marriage (at her behest) in nearly identical words. Both women shoulder all the guilt, because they believe in some part of their being that they are the center and the fulcrum and the prime mover of all that transpires in their world. This can be a powerful attitude when coupled with creativity and compassion, but when shackled by guilt and paranoia it results in exactly the kind of overwhelming meltdown as seen here.

The writer truly needs to get into therapy, or onto medication, or at the very least into a "talking circle" type of program. Because as long as they remain the white-hot star at the center of creation, alone and unapproachable, they'll remain blinded by their own self-consuming brilliance.

The moment I heard the addiction line, I was wondering "okay, who does he owe a favor to who can profit from this?" (Granted, I tend to think that about any of his lines, but still...)

The answer came hot on the heels - ethanol and nuclear. Ethanol means more donations to big agribusiness (and all the "litte expenses" one can hide in those budgets), PLUS it guarantees continued revenue to big oil, since ethanol production consumes almost as much energy (some say more) as it produces. And of course the other "alternate" energy isn't affordable solar or wind or anything that would facilitate a "distributed energy" solution. No, it's our old pal nuclear, which can only be run by energy conglomerates (and which also keeps our weapon stockpile supplied).

So yeah, it was an unfortunate choice of words as far as his petro-pals are concerned, but his comment doesn't really signal any sea change away from dependancy on the deadliest power sources we already use.

I thought from your title that he was going to admit he didn't mean it when he promised to hire 70,000 new science and math teachers. Though given how much they want to dilute science in the classroom, that's still a disingenuous statement...

Because I'm all for signing on to a "Day Of Frolic" if one's going on.

Oh, and tangentially related to this, is there any chance you might implement a filter for these posts? It would be nice to be able to sift out the anonymous posts, because overwhelmingly they're either worthless or trolls. If the writer can't stand by their words, why should anyone bother to read them?

(There are also a couple guys I'd like to personally filter out who pop up regularly and seem to only want to redirect the discussion into whatever woman-bashing they currently fancy, but they're easily ignored by just spotting their names.)