<"NewsFlash">

The Times, Friday November 24, 2006. "the poisoned russian spy breathed defiance at the Kremlin as the effects of a mystery cocktail pushed him to the brink of death." "Nine members of Britain's most prolific counterfeiting gang, a criminal syndicate that forged 20 pound notes on an industrial scale, were jailed yesterday...recovered..notes with a face value of more than 14,280,320 pounds." This is real. incredible. the world is extensive. yes extensive and elusive and at large, said to be armed and dangerous, police caution do not try to restrain the suspect without backup. and it continues.

"Thousands of Christians on campuses across Britain claim that their right to freedom of expression is being challeneged by student associations attempting to force Christian Unions to allow anybody, regardless of faith, ethnicity or sexuality, to sit on their ruling committees and to address their meetings." Is this seriously a problem? an atheist who wants to run for president of the christian union? None of the articles i've read really describe how this craze began(merely hints), but all across Britain student unions are cutting christian organizations out of their funding and, as underdog religous groups do, the organizations are fighting back against their oppressors with vigor. "eight church of england and roman catholic bishops as well as lord carey of clifton" have sent letters to The Times expressing their outrage. Is this a question of tolerance, religous doctrine, secularist agenda, morality, economics, insanity? maybe i've missed the point.

"A teenager calmly informed a friend in a text message 'someone will die 2day' before he murdered a pensioner chosen at random in the street." "The current fleet of four nuclear submarines containing 16 missiles with 200 warheads will not become obsolete until 2024." "150 killed in assault on slum city" "grandmother blows herself up in gaza"

Due to the rising number of child obesity cases, groups have been forming to ban junk food advertisments from television that targets children. "for health and consumer groups only a total ban before 9pm will do." I can't even comment. hours in front of the televison may be part of the problem. i'm not a health specialist, but..

I apologize, you can read the paper yourself.
Last night i watched a film called 'network' directed by sidney lumet, 1976. A news anchor calls bullshit on the air and becomes an apocalyptic ranting star. i thought the film was fantastic.
"I'm as mad as hell and i'm not going to take it anymore!"

It seems we have every reason to stay inside, to cower in fear, and then again maybe we have no reason at all. our ship is sinking in the sea and as water pours over the sides we're mending our clothes sitting in the slowly flooding captains quarters. yet i hesitate to paint such a bleak picture because on an individual level, in common everyday life, people are just good, except of course when they are not. which might be where the breakdown begins. it seems so easy to bring people together, we really aren't so different(someone should talk to the guy who began the rumour that we are), in fact most people can at least learn to get along. there are entire organiztions of like-minded individuals who work hand in hand to build a happy, safe, clean, friendly community. Theres the group of friends who buy the neighborhood homeless guy dinner, theres the person who will stop anything they are doing to help you out when you need it the most. but somewhere the sense of human community breaks down and degenerates into hate, misunderstanding and violence. everyones fighting for peace. if only we could at least agree on that. we're all as mad as hell to be standing knee deep in the murky sea, but no one seems to know where the leak is, and even if we did we haven't a clue as to how to save this ship.