Social Security: The New York Times reported today that Representative Jim Kolbe, Republican from Arizona stated, "People do not understand that tough choices need to be made." What we understand, Mr. Kolbe, is that you are making these "tough choices" for us and our kids. The people who will be most affected have little if any choice in the matter. Of course, that's precisely the point Kolbe and others of his ilk or making: they want us to pull our money out of Social Security and place it in the stock market. Who among us has such expertise? Well, they respond, our money will be placed in "safe" investments for us. Thanks, folks! So we are to trust the managers of Enron and others of their ilk with our money. The government bureaucrats aren't good enough to trust, we're supposed to trust whom? These same bureaucrats who will simply shlip our money off from one area to another, having managed it so wisely heretofore.

The structure and organization of our government has been founded on one guiding principle: you can't trust people with power to do the right thing.

Iraq: Read Thomas Friedman's Op-Ed piece in today's New York Times. He's got it as close to right as anybody. Iraq, when all is said and done, is nothing more than a Bush public relations boondoggle. And no one has figured out how to extricate us; they're operating on a wing and a prayer. Oh, well, we also have the Vietnam exit stratedgy: delcare victory and leave.

The Middle-East has always been about controlling trade. It has never been about anything else. The new Oliver Stone film about Alexander the Great should be enough of a reminder. Forget that nonsense about "freedom." Don't believe anyone who tells you this. Just as with Tricky Dick Nixon, follow the money. It's always about the money. And the struggle for controlling the Middle-East trade routes are much older than Alexander. This war has existed since before history.