Well, it looks like the powers that be are still going to go through with this war thing. Bush is talking about how the inspections process isn't going well, in spite of press reports to the contrary. They're playing up conflicts in the no-fly zone and the Hawks who fly the Union Jack are releasing new reports that further villanize Saddam Husein, as if that were necessary.

Call me paranoid, but it looks like the final diplomatic bricks are being laid for an initiation of open hostilities. It's not very heartening.

As for myself, I'm feeling allright about things. I'm very upset that there's seemingly nothing that can cool the bellicose tone of my country's leadership, but taking a longer view on things I can already see the tide start to turn. People in the mainstream are beginning to mention that the emperor has no clothes, that 'fair and balanced' is anything but, that a century of Pax Americana maybe isn't the best idea in the world. If we can keep from doing anything super foolish in the next year or two, I think we'll turn this one around as well.

Maybe I'm becoming a little politically exhausted, but maybe I'm also returning to my long-held belief that the root problems in this country are cultural, and cultural problems have cultural solutions. Politics and law play a role in this, but far more important is the cultural component of Leadership, the marketing of ideas. I'm starting to get a sense of where my place might be in this great big taco.