Some of what I would say to you I won't post in public. But as I know very well from experience, if the Internet is your sole link to humanity, you require help, and to get to the point where that is not true. (Not to disparage your fear of losing online access; I understand that.)

This is all fun, and often important, but one needs face-to-face interaction with other humans and a non-cyber circle, however small, of meat-space friends or associates. Please, try to find that.

But I would hate to lose my Internet connection, since it is my only link to humanity.

Dial up is cheap or free even over there, isn't it? And you'd be surprised how easy it is to lose this (I said lose, not give up willingly) and not really miss it. Oxygen and food are the only addictions that will kill you if you try to kick them.

And barbiturates...

;-)

I quite agree with you, Mona, it's very unhealthy when all one's human contacts are virtual and none are real. But what can I do? I have been living "between two worlds" for years : the vast bulk of my emotional investment is not here in Britain. It's a pretty dull country, with no real pretentions to creativity, originality or cultural independence. It took a serious turn for the worse when the Guardian newspaper caved in to our equivalent of your own 'neocon tendency in the Democratic Party' (I use the quote marks to bracket off the thing I want to compare, like in algebra). Our equivalent is something called "the Euston Group" which used exactly the same rhetoric, cumulatively blurring opposition to US imperialism, opposition to expansionist religious zionism, opposition to zionism as such, and anti-Semitism, all in the same toxic broth, which they then tipped over the heads of the remaining anti-imperialists in the Labor Party. In terms of domestic policy, and in terms of passive support for US imperialism, the Labor Party had always been pretty limp anyway, and I had never been a member, but my late sister was a member for decades, and she finally gave up on it some time in the nineties, over the Iraq war, if I remember correctly. There's nothing for me here, and I don't think I would like the USA much, either. Paradoxically, perhaps, I would much rather be in Israel, where at least people are lively, and have a slightly manic awareness that what they think and do can matter.

I claim that understanding the re-religionising of geopolitics over the post-Cold-War period is fundamental to understanding everything else, and that understanding the relationship between the various forms of zionism and the evolving rationales for US imperialism is central to this. This subject is not relevant to any of Glenn's topics on the level of detail, but it's relevant to all of them in terms of background.

I don't need to go over the political economy of the military-industrial establishment, although I have given a link to the web page of Jonathan Nitzan and Shimshon Bichler a hew times, because I think they are the best on this http://bnarchives.yorku.ca/

But my speciality, the area in which I feel I have something approaching unique insights, is this matter of religio political psychology, and that's why I keep returning to it. I think the reason I have these "something approaching unique insights" is also the reason I am so miserable : it's a thwarted zionist romance of my own, thwarted because of my stubborn irreligiosity, which prevents me from "converting to Judaism" and jumping onto the back of the zionist bus in that manner. If I had been born Jewish, I would have merged into the general run of left zionists without any particular controversies, I suppose.

It's probably the first time anyone with a microphone has asked.

There's nothing for me here, and I don't think I would like the USA much, either. Paradoxically, perhaps, I would much rather be in Israel, where at least people are lively, and have a slightly manic awareness that what they think and do can matter.

Vancouver, British Columbia, or there abouts.

And with that, I'm off to bed.

The once ubiquitous, dazzlingly photogenic DeRita seems to have vanished into thin air. My Google searches yield nothing current about Rumsfeld's Liar in Chief, or about his equally creepy wife Theresa Sheehan, former lead warmonger at the American Institute in Taiwan.

I strongly suspect they're both floating in the primordial ooze of right-wing think tanks, plotting nefarious crimes against international law, but any information would be sincerely appreciated.

So people are paying for cable tv that instead of informing them, supplies propaganda for war.

And the people are also paying the wages of corrupt government officials, and the costs of the war.

Seems the people are getting milked.

Moo!

About 'politically adept' senior officers. We talked about this before. I guess I don't really disagree with you, but would note a) it ain't JUST politics that put you in the chair, and B) I've been fortunate in knowing many good senior officers who don't fit this description, and who got there in spite of the BS.

Which is why I think the military media consultants were lying rather than simply deluded. I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt for being highly intelligent and well informed.

As I have pointed out repeatedly here, Cheney and Schwartzkopf both were interviewed predicting a quagmire in Iraq if the US invaded. I don't doubt that the officers you mention have similar analytical skills and IPU knows the information needed to perform the analysis is anything but obscure.

For some reason, even good people just seem to turn into some kind of evil zombie when they get too close to the neocon centers of power. I have my suspicions but I'm tired of arguing and getting called a conspiracy theorist so I won't go any further.

Oxygen and food are the only addictions that will kill you if you try to kick them.

And barbiturates...

You left off alcohol, I can't imagine why.

Oh, and water.