So much toxin floating in the air, the water, in your bloodstream, it's amazing that we survive another minute. But no one seems worried. Most people seem to ignore the evidence that scientists and other experts who know a few things about what's what present. WHY? I've got a clue, but it's only my POV. We've become slaves to the media, the politicians and the military complex – not to mention the corporate tribal leaders who determine who lives and who dies financially.

The Bush administration has sold us down the river, folks, and if you don't believe just sit back and do nothing. Soon enough you'll have the river of sh*# flowing right up to YOUR door.

Environmental regulations are being snuffed out like candles in a hurricane everyday; quietly, surreptitiously for the most part. The Republican party corporate hackmasters and their puppets, the politicians, are pushing the boundaries of sensibility outward into the absurd. Just look at what Bush's administration has done thus far: The EPA is all but dead; plant emission regulations have been loosened to the point that they're a sham; clear-cutting forests is being presented as a rationale, earth-friendly thing to do despite outcries from biologists and earth scientists worldwide; Bush shunned the Kyoto Treaty, not even showing the courtesy of explaining his reasons, other than to say it's counterproductive for U.S. industries to participate in the effort to reduce greenhouse gases; and so on and so on ad infinitum.

What you don't know is just how far it's gone and how far it's going to go before the Bushmeister is through.

The war in Iraq was a sideshow performed by the military to enhance its budgets while diverting public attention from the political maneuvers perpetrated by the administration. The broad ramifications are so far-reaching it's mind-boggling!

The world cannot sustain the consumption people have come to expect. We expect to drive gas-guzzling vehicles anywhere we choose, eat till we burst our belts; buy throw-away goods for the sake of ego gratification, not the betterment of our lives. We've grown so far from our roots, the earth that bears us through space and time, that we stand the risk of becoming cyborgs ourselves.

It wouldn't surprise me if some actually choose to become bio-mechanical beings, something akin to the creatures that stalk the darkness in Tool videos.

C'est la vie, eh?

Checkin' out Interpol Well, it's like a return to the Mersey bands of the late '50s' early '60s, that's what Interpol sounds like to me. Not bad, really. They've got a strong rhythm section and a quirky vocal arrangement on one song "She's Back." I haven't a clue what the hell the girl dancing in the waterlogged room is all about – I'm sure it's an obscure, inside joke among the band members.

Whatever. Worth checking out!

It's Sunday and it's 11 a.m. which means it's time to check out George Stephanopoulos' interviews. It strikes me as odd that former presidential advisers left and right are showing up as hosts on news feature programs. But that's the nature of power, I suppose. Once you're in the Beltway you've got pretty much carte blanche access to nearly any job in media, both visible and otherwise.

Right now Ambassador Paul Bremer is dancing around the question "Doesn't the United States NEED more troops from other countries to legitimize its imperialistic colonization of Iraq?" Bremer seems uncomfortable with the question, or perhaps it's the premise of the question that's got him wriggling on the spit, so to speak.

It appears to me that many predictions made before we entered into this adventure in Iraq are coming true. Tribal factions are fighting one another and U.S. and British troops are caught in the middle; government restructuring seems to be confusing our representatives (the administration's front folks) and the apparent truth is, we launched this venture without really thinking it through and covering the bases.

An image of Uncle Sam laboring under the weight of the land mass that is Iraq springs to mind. It seems more and more transparent to me that Bush and his oil-hungry crew were shortsighted in their planning to meet the stated goals for Iraq, and now, when the whole premise for the war is the subject of jokes around many a water cooler and the ineptitude of our administration's efforts to "democratize" Iraq is is beginning to look like a sad fiasco to even the president's supporters, that we've bitten off more than we can chew. The infiltration by terrorists into Iraq is a certainty, yet our troops are unable to even begin to stop it. Why? Because we didn't plan for that little possibility and, therefore, we don't have the manpower on the ground to cover the vast borders of that desert nation.

The answer, Bush seems to think, is to get the electricity flowing and all will be well. What an idiotic rationale! The Iraqis, it seems to me, have made it clear that they want the Americans to stop shooting willy-nilly anyone who uses a cell phone after dark, or drives toward a checkpoint as curfew nears.

We are faced with a serious dilemma in Iraq but no one seems to be making an effort to solve it. Our troops are, more and more, feeling threatened and unwanted and our Iraqi lackeys don't seem to be providing much help. The latest report I've heard stated that the interim government the U.S. convened feels like a fifth wheel. Members of the Iraqi government – albeit the U.S. controlled Iraqi government – have complained that they are ignored by both military and political leaders, and that for Bush to blame them for a failure of intelligence on terrorist activities is unfounded based on that fact (if fact it be).

And here in the states we have the ridiculous California recall campaign (oh no, another bad actor is running for high office), and Ashcroft, the nation's jack-booted lawman, traveling through key states trying to convince doubters that the Homeland Security Act is a good thing. That the administration is using it ONLY to protect law-abiding citizens and attack terrorists. But how do we know if that's true? Ashcroft answers to no one, not even the Congress. So we're left to simply trust his word; yea, right.

Well, it's another day in the life and life goes on. So I'm out.

Have yourself a merry little ... oops, too early for that. Just have a good day, OK.

Ciao.

A very short note ... I'm about to head over to D's so I haven't much time.

I'm thinking about my friend Mike and his wife and their new baby, which I hope entered the world yesterday, fat and happy.

Meantime, I'm exhausted (per usual) from a hectic, dreary work week and looking forward to a couple of days off.

The whole Iraq 'thing' is so out of hand it's becoming too bewildering for me to keep up with. I only know that we've got to pull it together quickly and stop the violence against our soldiers and the Iraqi people (the innocents, of course – to hell with the rest of them).

Well, as I said, it's a short note.

Mike, if you read this, here's wishing you contentment and the best of all possible worlds. Ciao.

Limp Bizkit tours and their Web site is interesting! Just a quick note to say I'm alive! I'm alive! Ah, it feels terrible! C'est la vie.

Does anyone know why LaunchCast on SBC/Yahoo doesn't work on iMacs or using IE v7.1.2 or Safari v1.0 (v85)? It's driving me edgy.

That's all folks. I've got a lady who's waiting for a back rub so I'm off.

Live long and prosper.

DOWN THE LINE THE LIE GOES BLIND AND THAT'S WHEN YOU'LL OPEN YOUR EYES Just got in from work and in this lonely little shell of a room I write this simple-minded gibberish to the vacuum of space behind your face.

Face; the spinal frontier (imagine the Star Trek theme playing). Our mission: To travel through schizophrenic episodes to meet new life forms, advance the knowledge of bipolar disorders and get a good deal on a used Toyota. (Hmmm/hmm/hmmmm/hmm/hmmm/hm/hmmm/hmmm). Fly with the the manic crew of the starship Entahpwize to see new vistas, lose touch with your body parts and discover new worlds in dark alleys among the denizens of the universe.

Clearly I'm fried like a two-day-old potato left in hot grease so I'd better sign off for now.

Here's bidding you fondeau, or fond deux, whichever comes first, so to speak.

My God! I get to sleep late tomorrow! Hallelujah.

This is your captain wishing you a funny rerun of "Saturday Night Live." However, barring that unlikely scenario, check out "Mad TV." Works for me.

So now American politics has been reduced to foisting a muscle-bound, Austrian actor (and I use the term loosely) being taken seriously as a candidate for the governership of California.

I am stunned that a man who's greatest contribution of society is a barely intelligible line, "Hasta la vista, baby" in the running for governor in one of the most powerful state's in the nation, despite its economic woes of the moment.

Christ! How can one take our Constitution, our system of government or the electorate seriously when $3,500 and 65 signatures is all it takes to climb to the heights of power and, in essence, rule a state - any state - but in this case a state the size and complexity of California

What a farce! "I will make sure that every school child will have an after-school program to attend." Another wonderful platform; "I will clean up Sacramento and it's hasta la vista Gray."

God help us. Wasn't it bad enough when we elected a Borax soap salesman who's biggest claim to fame the co-star of a film that featured a chimpanze president of the United States.

Of course, come to think of it, we now have an Ivy League airhead as leader of the greatest, most powerful nation in the world. Oh God! We're all doomed!

I suggest you do whatever it is you always wanted to do, that one thing you always dreamed of doing before you die, and do it soon.

"Hasta la vista, baby."