Hi Publius,

We've discussed this before. A friend of mine had warned me that the personal life of Bush was riddled with evangelism and his presumption that he somehow held office because God had "chosen" him to be the leader of the free world that takes us all to Armageddon. And that he gets FURIOUS if anyone disagrees with him.
A chilling look into the mind of a man who has somehow come to rule the world.
Frankly, if there truly is a God, why is he playing dice with this mans' marbles?

I don't think if he stood down and sent most of the troops home that it would be bad for morale. I think it would be bad for morale if he doesn't do it soon. There are plenty of young men out there who would like to be taking their young sons out to play baseball and sleeping in with their young wives on a Saturday morning.

As for the CNN coverage, I am SICK of hearing the words "war" and "Iraq".
These newscasters are like robots, working for robots. I can not watch ONE bit of news for a week and then turn on CNN or any major newschannel, and these words pop up within two or three minutes. It's INSANE.
A people fed this nonsense 24/7 are numb, brainwashed and kept in a constant state of fear by this administration, who has nothing more to feed them as they've clamped down on all of the other looming boondoggles threatening their administration.
GWB choking on a pretzel during a football game is a sure sign he was drunk and hollering at SOMEBODY!

>"Your only course is to pray along with Bush, as his former speech-writer suggests in his book."

Really? David Frum's book sounds like something I'd like to read. Of course, I wouldn't sleep soundly at night for the nightmares.....if you have a copy, bring it along with you tonight.
(By the way, what shall it be...Italian or Mexican? LOL)

>"Frum tells us he was witness to an unbelievably disturbing display of lunacy at the uppermost levels of global power."

I only repeated that because it needs to be read again.
If Bush is the religious zealot I think he is ("Born" again??), then I think he no better than Bin Laden or Hussein or the North Korean leader. They ALL are megalomaniacs and they ALL believe they're right. Perhaps it's their own religion and their place in it that gives them the right to trounce all over anyones' rights who stand in their way (their own people included).

>"forcing subordinates into Bible study"....

EEK!!!!!!!
Well, at least he has something in common with Ashcroft!
The Bible is just an attempt at history. It is so full of parables, that it's hard to make sense of most of it. And "God" told some pretty strange things for his "chosen" to do, things that in retrospect are sheer insanity. However, back in the old days, schizosphrenia had yet to be diagnosed, so a lot of tales were blamed on God.
People lived in the Dark Ages of fear then.
Harumph! And now.

>"Basically, if Frum is to be believed, the most powerful nation on the planet has been hijacked by a bunch of mentally retarded religious fanatics and bloodthirsty thugs who just stepped out of Stanley Kubrick's worst nightmare."

It sometimes feels this way to me. Insanity grips this planet. There appears to be no talks of peace or more unilateral treaties with which to treat derision. People like Ed who sit in fear, and wave their ya-ya flags, make me ill. We HAVE the most powerful army on earth. Let's not use as a bully, but only if necessary, as a warning to those who step out of line. We are losing our allies and stirring up dissent worldwide.

Aggression creates agression.
It's like the proverbial snake eating it's tail, except it's a nuclear one now.