Tom Tomorrow brings to light some distressing poll numbers. Our informed citizenry. This is the sort of thing that really frightens me. It honestly does feel like we are starting to slip into some sort of Orwellian nightmare, where facts are completely mutable, controlled by the state, and the Memory Hole gobbles up whatever is inconvienent to the current Plan. This is largely the result of confluence of interestest between the government and the media since 9-11, and it raises serious questions (for me anyway) about the essential health of our democracy.

I hope everyone can see that the spread of disinformation and bullshit is a bad thing. It leads inexorably to widestpread corruption and retards progress, as people who are concerned with being 'on message' must in some way sacrafice their concern for telling the truth, for being honest. Just as scientists who serve an agenda (rather than science) do not produce worthwhile results, politicians who serve and agenda (rather than the people) similarly fail to make things better. The line between ideological kowtowing and honest pursuit of justice is much fuzzier in social contructs like politics, but there is still a line.

And then there's this: the International Hummer Owners Group: I-HOG, no kidding.