Don't get me started on Medicare. I'm old enough to be covered by Medicare—in fact, I have no choice in the matter. Within recent years I've had plenty to do with doctors and hospitals, and all I can say is, thank God my wife's medical insurance at work covers me, too. Some weeks after a visit to a doctor, I get a report from Barbara's insurance company that explains what they cover, which is usually everything. I also get a report from Medicare that explains what they cover, which is usually nothing.

The speech:-- what I saw last night was a small man delivering a string of bumper-stickers. I also saw a man who apparently thought a comma in the script meant "assume smirk and pause for applause," which that assembly of sycophants (from both parties) responded to on cue—after the three or four second pause it took them to realize that they were supposed to applaud at that point. And all those standing ovations! It began to look like they were all on pogo sticks.

I've heard political speeches delivered by all the presidents since Franklin D. Roosevelt (now there was an orator!), and all I heard last night was a small man uttering all the froth and meringue that he assumed people expected him to say, but supplying no underlying substance. Patriotic twaddle, a lot of scary saber-rattling (the 800 lb. gorilla strikes again!), and the usual tripe about huge increases in spending while cutting taxes. Just how is he going to manage that? Is magician David Copperfield one of his advisors? The words have become a news reporter's cliché within recent years, but all I heard last night was pure "political rhetoric." And the assembly gave every indication that they loved it! Well—I guess Bush was speaking their language. And we elected these doofuses! In the immortal words of Pete Seeger, "When will we ever learn?"

When small men cast long shadows, that means the sun is setting.

Don Firth