Hammer Mill Days

Don't tell me - let me guess. It's big. It's dense. And it's very, very attractive. Ummmmm... that could be almost anything that fits those criteria. Am I getting warmer? Well, am I? Crikey. Sometimes Marvin (my personal robot assistant) takes his programming far too seriously. I've asked him to help me with a little problem I'm trying to work out... namely, what inhabitable planets can we sail off to in case the titanic struggle between sFshzenKlyrn (trans-physical etheric energy being from Zenon) and Gizmandiar (lawn-obsessed, power-mad space creature now occupying the seat of our local government) renders the earth un inhabitable for a brief time (perhaps six or seven million years... which passes quickly if you are made of feldspar). Matt heard recently that the astronomical community has identified another 28 planets circling distant stars they've observed, and I'm sure at least one of them has our name written on it. If I can just get Marvin to ...

Clinging to their precious terror war, the Bush administration now cannot stop talking about al Qaeda, as if Bin Laden were running a kind of Wal*Mart of terror as opposed to serving as inspiration to hundreds and perhaps thousands of self- directed extremist organizations. It's the last rhetorical refuge for a president who has lost the support of the vast majority of his countrymen and is now hunkering down to ride out the last 18 months of a particularly septic tenure. If we leave Iraq, Bush cautions us, we will be hit again. What he doesn't tell us is, if we stay, we are just as likely to be hit again, if not more so, thanks to his war in Iraq, which has spawned a new generation of terrorists and significantly destabilized a region already boiling with hatred and injustice. Alas, there is no "undo" button on this war, which is why so many of us opposed it most strenuously before its start. We have set into motion a catastrophe the repercussions of which will be w...