A really bad sign

Bush has announced a new American policy of pre-emptive strikes, whenever we feel like it, whether or not we have support from the U.N. or anybody else. So let me depart from my usual self-obsessed natterings to complain about it. Cris gave me the news as soon as I walked into the kitchen this morning. Before I'd had my coffee, she pointed out that this puts us in the league with military empires of the past, from Rome to the U.S.S.R., whose similar policies led to their eventual downfall.

Of course, they didn't have the internet and Starbucks.

I read once that the people who handle mail and messages in the White House count support and opposition like this: If a handwritten letter counts as 1, then a letter off a laser printer counts as .1, unless it's a form letter, in which case it counts as .01. This is because they figure that if you took the time to actually sit down and write a letter by hand, you feel pretty strongly about an issue. By this reasoning, an email message counts as about .0001.

So sit down and write a letter, by hand, today. The address, and the new policy, are both at the White House website. If you're not ready to write a letter now, you will be by the time you see that website.