I wanted to give my entire "W" check to a few environmental groups, to try to offset in small measure the hideous damage Dubya and his coal-&-oil-lobby cronies are doing and plan to continue to do to the air, land, water, and future of this once-lovely planet. At the time I got the check my funds were so low I couldn't give it away after all, but I'm still hoping to make up for that when I get my paycheck next week. It grieves me mightily to have a president with the IQ of a toaster. I agree with the previous poster who preferred a Rhodes scholar with a very loose zipper to this smirking, malevolent dummy. History is full of great and gifted leaders with messy personal lives, and, contrary-wise, with self-righteous prudes with huge egos but no noticeable talent, except perhaps a talent for doing harm. The unlamented Jesse Helms, for one.

All that said, I'm kinda sorry to see and participate in a political thread here. The world is divided enough; I've felt for years that I was witnessing and living through a low-grade, subterranean civil war. This is a place to talk about music in its many, miraculous ramifications, which has always been and continues to be a source of endless joy for me.