nteresting, Marc,,

I remember for a long time (Triage and Sheryl Crow were the projects) I was really inspired by the sadistic theatre manipulator Antonin Artaud... Using actually physically invasive behavior in a planned manner in order to provoke a real physical reaction. It didnt turn out so good for me, as it's inherently a double-edged sword--Just as the audience and my collaborators didn't know what I was doing, I didnt know what they were going to do in response. Energies got set in motion and there was an equal, but entirely unpredictable (to me) reaction, and I just about got killed. Over and over. It's a fascinating world and a fascinating game, but man is it dangerous.

Thanks for the explanation of your mind fuck, but what you and Dale, and some of the other people I've talked about this stuff with don't seem to address is-- this isnt a pheromone-based, unthinking animal reaction based on my innate kumbaya-ness. This is a hard, coldly thought out position; as much based in strategy as it is morality. This administration is a failure, and they need to be replaced. They should never have been given the job in the first place, but like this war, what's done is done. What needs to be done now is to stop the hemmorhaging. Where they should have united, they divided. Where they should have shown strength, they showed avarice. Where they should have shown leadership they ran. Where they should have respected us enough to tell us the truth they showed their contempt and lied. I didnt arrive at these assessments in a vacuum. While I obviously don't have a security clearance or anything like it, I know people from a lot of walks of life, and my opinions and deductions have been hard defended. It seems to be the fashion now to assume that detractors of this administration are just dreamy-eyed, tone-deaf Bush-haters. That's not the case, at least not for me. I'm always ready to concede a point if something I didnt think was going to work actually does well. I actually had high hopes for these guys in the immediate aftermath of 9/11/. But theyre not doing well with this presidency, and theyve run out of excuses. So 2.6 million jobs are going to be created in the next 7 months. And the water shall turn to wine. So a peaceful, orderly, just society is going to emerge from the rubble of Baghdad, of Kabul. And the angels all shall sing. So all those snivelling foreigners will be shown for the visionless cowards that they are. And the lambs shall sleep with lions. So the intelligence we were given was poor, no fault of our own... Don't kid yourself that I'm gnashing my teeth with my hatred of Bush. I don't even think he's really important, except as a symbol. He's a front man. He's Roger Daltrey in the Who. It's what the band's playing that I'm listening to.

David