"We have every right to question US "intelligence" when the same FBI and CIA now chasing Bin Laden also once trained their sights on Martin Luther King and Malcolm X ... Even if we found out who was sending the anthrax tomorrow, innocent black males in LA and New York and Cincinnati would continue to have fatal allergic reactions to bullets fired by white cops ... how could the military and the CIA have got it so wrong? After all, we're paying them $300bn a year to (a) predict the fall of the Berlin wall, (b) predict the invasion of Kuwait, (c) not bomb Chinese embassies when we're not at war with China, (d) not train and fund Osama bin Laden when he will later use our own weapons against us." -- Professor Jonathan David Farley, Distinguished Scholar [of mathematics] at Oxford University

Here are my secret troves of great writing and insightful thoughts, the oases of my intellectual spirit:

• Arts and Letters Daily
• (zero)format, formerly known as 'wickedfresh'

Yup, just two. I've shown you mine -- please show me yours. Where do you go for consistently good writing?

This morning I went into the medical office that is my primary 'care' place, and for once in the five years I've been going there I finally was seen by (a phrase which sounds suspiciously like 'was granted an audience by') the doctor whose name has adorned my BC/BS card lo these many years. And then I went to Bill's Prescription Center and found out that the new health care plan doesn't include them. So much for supporting the little guy whose view is now blocked by a brand-new Walgreens. (I got pissed off when Walgreens built a store literally right in front of Bill's.) But at least I've got some antibiotics and decongestants. Sinus infections suck. Sinus infections during a long holiday weekend suck majorly.