discarding history? who was in a coma, tommie? for eight years america was led by a man who was unable to read without moving his lips and all you did was make excuses for him. you made a ridiculous spectacle of yourself and you're not even embarrassed. the man made a fool of himself, and fools of his country, but at least he couldn't help himself, and he probably acted out of the best of motives. you don't have either of those excuses.

read the article, it (and i) quote david frum, one of bush's own team, and he supports what i was saying, in fact, it's why i picked this particular piece to bow out on. or is the great researcher of the zone only eager to footnote sources that support his own petty prejudices?

but while i'm here, beware, all zoners. i know enough american history to see some awful parallels with this time and with the period immediately preceding your civil war. there is a ferocity and an intransigence loose in this land, a failure to meet common ground, and an unreasoning hatred and a perverse nostalgia for a golden past that never was, and a glorious future that can never be. and like in the civil war, it is based on irreconcilable differences. i see war coming to america, not a war of great armies on bloody battlefields, but war nonetheless, and perhaps a hideous one. and i wish to play no part in it.

like the civil war, it will have many underlying historical causes,and both sides will have their good and bad points, their truths and their error. but it will eventually begin with only one spark: the failure to understand that the world has changed and it cannot be wished back to the way it was.

God bless you all, and farewell--for now...