Ralph Nader wants you to tell him to stuff it.

"I don't understand my teenage son. He's always locked in the bathroom with that damn Ann Coulter book."

Why oh why, on today of all days did I venture into David Brooks' wonderful world of WHAAAA??!!

The world Dean described is largely devoid of grand conflicts or moral, cultural and ideological divides. It is a world without passionate nationalism, a world in which Europe and the United States are not riven by any serious cultural differences, in which sensible people from around the globe would find common solutions, if only Bush weren't so unilateral.

At first, the Bush worldview seems far more airy-fairy and idealistic. The man talks about God, and good versus evil. But in reality, Dean is the more idealistic and naïve one. Bush at least recognizes the existence of intellectual and cultural conflict. He acknowledges that different value systems are incompatible.

I'm not sure I'm up to tackling this one. Someone else try. I'm going to bed.

It's true after all.

The late Sen. Strom Thurmond's family on Monday said it acknowledges a California woman's claim that she is his illegitimate mixed-race daughter. Her lawyer said the statement brought her "a sigh of relief."

"As J. Strom Thurmond has passed away and cannot speak for himself, the Thurmond family acknowledges Ms. Essie Mae Washington-Williams' claim to her heritage. We hope this acknowledgment will bring closure for Ms. Williams," the family's lawyer, J. Mark Taylor, said in a brief statement.

Operation Red Dawn

It might be easier to champion these military directives if they didn't have such stupid names. Or at least if they took those names from better movies.

Wow! Sleep in a few hours and look at what you miss. Okay, yes this is a good thing. Saddam's capture will finally (hopefully) put that part of the debate to rest. Captured and not killed is always a good thing. For one thing it makes the issue of Saddam's crimes an issue of justice rather than vengeance. For another we aren't haunted by this larger than life spectre of a tyrant. Instead we have real life pictures of a broken man.

Now if someone could please tell me how a man living in a spider hole with no ability to communicate with the outside world coordinates a massive resistance effort, I might begin to relax.

ADDED: This is really alot to take in before I've had my coffee.

All I've got is one thin dime

Funny—as a child I thought it was my dad's face that was on the dime, and so it was my favorite coin. Even after I learned that, really, it was Franklin Delano Roosevelt's face, I've continued to look at my dimes affectionately. The group of 80-odd Republicans (and I do mean odd) who are proposing to put Ronald Reagan's face on the dime, replacing FDR, should be aiming for something larger—something that really reflects Reagan's biggest mark on this country. After Freddie Mercury died a friend of mine said that AIDS should be called Reagan's Disease since it spread so quickly and viciously during his tenure as president due to his ignorance, prejudice and complete lack of compassion.

And so that's my proposal: rename AIDS for Ronald Reagan. Imagine the money that could be raised by invoking that name. It couldn't possibly be put to better use.