The speech wasn't as bad as I had feared. I was more interested in content than delivery, and it was a lot more balanced and sane than I had expected, though the characterization of the terrorists as hating freedom is a bunch of crap. That reference was designed to get Americans all fired up with patriotism, which will be necessary to get everyone behind a "war effort." Either these guys are religious fanatics that want to force their brand of Islam on the world, or they are angry over the U.S. support of Israel, sanctions on Iraq, etc., or maybe both, but I'm sure they don't give a flying you-know-what about our Constitution or national ideals.

I agree that we may be balanced on the edge of WWIII. It will take some careful handling to avoid it, and I sure hope Colin Powell and Dick Cheney are up to it. If Dubya can become a decent speechmaking figurehead, that will be about the best I expect from him, and so far it looks good.

I don't understand why you guys are always on about "trolling." You seem to be defining that term as expressing any opinion that somebody else is likely to disagree with. It is clear DougR and I have very different views, but I have never known him to be nasty about it, unlike, say, MAV or X-Ed. I personally have no problem with reasonably polite arguments--it gets really boring if we all agree. "Flaming" as I understand it, is being really nasty and calling people names. I have not seen anybody do that in this thread. Sometimes it seems that people are afraid of arguing, but I think that it's really possible to do that without getting nasty. A certain amount of passion adds spice, as long as it's not personal.

I am still very reluctant to wave a flag; I am still afraid of mindless "patriotism." I am very much afraid that civil liberties may go down the tubes with a rush if we don't guard against it. We must be careful to make a distinction between actions that must be taken for security's sake and harrassment and profiling.

I stopped into a fabric store last night and found that every scrap of red, white or blue ribbon had been sold, as well as every bit of American flag-patterned fabric, no matter how stupid-looking. I bought some rainbow ribbon for myself.