[Jeff Higgins]

Great stuff, Flinstone. As an admitedly struggling born-again leftie, I have been perusing the popular media for clues as to how I should feel about Dubya's apparent success. Can I tell you what a relief it has been not to have to make my own decisions on such vital matters? Anyway, in my former existance as a "neocon", I was somewhat pleased with the glimmer of hope we had given an oh-so-obviously pretty hopeless corner of the world. People actually voting for the first time, rival factions looking like they might really want to try to get along; all of that was encouraging. Now, however, I find it somewhat disturbing. I now realize it is not so much about their long-term success in the ME as it is about the political and intellectual debate here and in Europe. While it's kind of fun to live in this intellectually driven world of the abstract, it's been kind of tough for me to come to grips with the possibility of losing the first really important debate since I switched sides. I'm told I will get used to it and learn to just move on, but it will be hard at first. Articles like this are valuable to me at this tender time during this admittedly hard transition. I think I'll head to Seattle to try to stir up a more successful protest this weekend; I hear that might be a good place, and it's pretty close to home. I really have no idea just how to get started or exactly what it is I would be protesting. Again, I'm told details like that really are not that important once you get started; I'm told if I just learn to follow my emotions and try not to think it through to far, I should be o.k. Wish me luck.