Elsewhere in "Politics" a thread on antidrug laws is winding down, with the social libertarians and an unexpected ayatollah at reasonably civil daggers drawn. It is useful to be reminded that before the War on Terrorism the authoritarian faction had the War on Drugs to flog in their never-ending struggle against civil liberties. But before the War on Drugs became a convenient prybar for dislodging traditional individual rights, we had...the War on Communism!--and a handy war it was, my droogies, for some: the late J.E. Hoover (never as enthusiastic a persecutor of organized crime as his several hagiographies would have you believe) made that struggle the capstone of his career and, for his troubles, got the FBI HQ building named for him (about as grotesque as it would be for the Russians today to have their domestic secret police HQ named for Lavrentii Beria--it's astonishing that this brutal piece of public architecture is still called "Hoover").

What I liked about the War on Communism was the enemy itself, Red in tooth and claw. Its foes on these shores thundered denunciation, and frankly--what wasn't not to like? "We must struggle to preserve our American Way of Life against Stalin's hordes, who would deprive us of the freedoms our fathers fought for! Yes! How would you like your telephones to be tapped...your mail opened...government agents monitoring what books you read, what is said at (pious gasp) your place of worship?? We must accordingly tap your phones, read your mail, et cetera..." And you know?-- It used to be possible to call them on this disconnect, and while it didn't stop them, it did occasionally close some obscure circuit of shame, make 'em stutter for momentary awareness of the contradiction. You could actually cause the brighter ones to understand for a (one brief shining) moment, before mindlessness mercifully extinguished the awareness, that they proposed to fight Stalinism with Stalinism. Today, unfortunately, the authoritarian nature of Islam rampant can be disguised for domestic consumption as mere anarchy (the authoritarian part can be passed off as mere sharia--Crazy fucking ragheads wanna ban my cable teevee tittyvision and monster truck rallies? Kill the motherfuckers!) and it's tougher to bring the contradiction into sharp relief. The USSR was easier.

cordially,

...I ran your response through babelfish a few times. The most recent output doesn't seem markedly more senseless than your original:

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cordially,

"Your ears are broken."

cordially,

My dear boxter, the elements you cite are all familiar to me, and your exegesis is at least plausible, but whenever the ungovernable urge to attempt to tease meaning forth from labyrinthine prose seizes me, my first impulse will generally be to thumb through Finnegans Wake, not to consult your latest riff in iwethey.

cordially,