I am responsible for the original post, I have found the responses interesting and some perplexing, I am not now and was not angry when I wrote that. Forboding, yes.Honest, yes. At times sarcastic in pointing out the absurdity, yes. But not angry. In fact my central theme was entirely Christian. I am not a malcontent ,but, I am a dissident and proud of it, Jesus Christ was a dissident too, as was Martin Luther King Jr.. I suspect most people who thought they heard anger were Republicans because of my less than flattering words about their leaders ,sorry. I forgive you. Some folks kindly offered advice that I should get out of the metropolis, thank you, but I live in N.Y. state not N.Y. city and I don't spend most of my time pondering the worlds troubles and internalizing them, I firmly believe Peter Tosh's words, from "Stop that TRain" - "some go east, some go west, some step aside and try there best", but, I don't think that should preclude having an intelligent discussion on this ugly social phenomenom. It is true that peace comes from with in , I said it to my boss the other day when she asked me why I was whistling on such a hectic day, But we are also all ONE, don't we owe it to ourselves and each other to look out for the darker forces of our psyches rising up and tearing up the place? As to the "We didn't start the fire" contigent , of course not, it has been and always will be smoldering, but every now and then , with greater and greater frequency ,it burns down the house. We are allegedly intelligent beings, why must we always repeat these cycles. All I was recommending was a few extra buckets of water now before it's too late, as an ounce of prevention. One criticisism I accept is that I shouldn't refer to people as RABID JERKS, they are rabid but in the interest of my own point I won't call many of them jerks anymore. As to those who defended Mr. Powell, He went on national T.V. and outlined the extreme force we will use if confronted with War? Roosevelt said " Speak softly, carry a big stick" he DID NOT say " AND WAVE IT AT YOUR NEIGHBORS THREATENINGLY, THOUGH YOU CURRENTLY HAVE NO QUALM WITH THEM." Please , That is not leadership that is ugly industrial military complex talk. One posting accurately went back and pointed out the longer chain; Waco, Oklahoma city, columbine, going postal..... I intentionally drew my examples from the very recent past because I think/fear it is nearing the boiling point. One point I didn't flesh out clearly- Art has always been the refuge of the dissident and the true moral compass of the culture. That is why I pointed to the likes of Puff Daddy or eminem in contrast with the Brittany 'nsyc st. boys. No Bob Dylan's here - Voilent hate mongers on oneside and shallow conformists on the other. Hostility and conformity taken together are a reciepe for disaster. Nazi Germany grew out of the War sanctions of their world war 1 loss, and the unresolved hostilities that led to WW1 in the first place. We however are enjoying an unprecedented period of prosperity and yet are slowlier heading down a less extreme but similiar road, What happens when the party is over? so now I reiterate, TRY BEING ESPECIALLY NICE TO EVERYBODY. ESPECIALLY THE PEOPLE WHO HAVE CONTRACTED RABIES. MAYBE IT CAN BE PREVENTED. One last thought, I think we should give Charston Heston a rifle and pit him against a tomahawk chopper, It will prove that the 2nd ammendment is useless, and it will be a pay-for-view blockbuster. We can take the proceeds and send Colin on an around the world trip to wave his stick at people till he finds some place that is getting as pissy as we are here and then we can go at it..Sorry had to piss of the P.C. folk sooner or later.