Possibly...or they may just prefer to rely on the short attention span of the general public, which can easily be diverted anyway by manufacturing some new crisis.

SARS, by the way, seems to be falling a bit short of causing a dimension of hysteria comparable to the hype being generated by the media. 31 people have died of it in the Toronto area. That's out of a population of about 3 million. That means I have a one in 96,774 chance of dying of SARS at this point. Oh! I am soooo terrified. I have been down to Toronto several times in the last 2 weeks, and I can tell you that the ordinary daily traffic conditions pose a far greater peril to life and limb than SARS...but you don't see people demanding that we close the roads, do you?

As Amos has said before, we live in a semi-barbaric and really quite primitive society, driven by its own irrational and mythical notions of reality every bit as much as was Rome, Assyria, or ancient Babylon.

Loyalists and career soldiers don't want to hear that. It might make them question what they are doing, and cause them to lose a little sleep.

- LH