Steve:

I share some of your frustration regarding the power of lobbies, but the reality is not so much that they are a cabal as that they can guarantee votes and money. I know some of those votes,I've worked with many of them. But the lobbies you mention can be beaten. Obama's administration led an agreement with Iran, flouting the Israel lobby. Limiting offshore drilling may have been a successful challenge to the oil lobby (then again it may not have). Some lobbies lose their relevancy. The gun lobby/ NRA is the product of successful promoting (Wayne LaPierre and his use of powerful words such as "jack-booted thugs" "good guy with a gun"). And a truly American obsession with firearms has been subverted by it. It can be changed, but not overnight.

Don'l, I have no idea of what you mean by meaning or not meaning out of black or white lips. I think it's nonsense of the non-sequitar kind that you do so well. I had a friend who liked to send postcards that read like an alien learning English from a Swahili jokebook. Many of your posts are almost word-for-word like my friend's.

Two-guns Robo