A good piece in The Times on the American tendency towards 'providencial' thinking. For an example of its influence I'll link again to Tom Friedman's absurd piece from last week:
The intellectual defense of the Sure Thing. Irrational exuberance indeed.

Other then that there's not much to add from me tonight. There's a lot of news. Linking to it all would only be a waste of time. We are almost undoubtedly going in, but the hawks are scared. There are too many intelligent, well educated, and conservative people telling them how stupid they are. I feel sorry for Bill Kristol. He's about to get his wish and he's beginning to realize that he will regret it for the rest of his life.
I mentioned this last night and then took it down for being too glib. A friend has connections at Prudential Securities, and yes, the jokes are about velocity and impact of a body falling from their floor. Everybody is thinking of getting out and Bush is being blamed for everything. It's absurd to think- since I'm recapping last night's post- that Dean would not see clear to link unemployment with the war. But then again it's absurd that some people are being praised, as Jackson Lears, and even Tom Friedman are, for saying that they, and we, are stuck on somebody else's ride. When helpless passivity is considered a brave critique, we're fucked.