I'm annoyed. While my computer was down and I was depending on the library for internet access, I was deleting my news services unopened and only keeping up with this website and the Department of Peace action. Now I'm back on line, and I'm annoyed by the ignorance and hypocrisy of people I thought would know better.

It started with a headline that caught my eye with the provocative question: Which came first, the dumbing down of the presidency or the dumbing down of the electorate? So I read the article, and the author didn't even bother to answer the question! It was just another impotent invective against the current administration. I know how I would answer the question.

Then I read a bleeding-heart appeal for fair-trade cotton. It explained how government subsidies allow corporate cronies to sell cotton below cost and thus starve the poor cotton-growers in third-world countries. Now I know a local organization (which will remain nameless) that promotes fair trade coffee but sells tee shirts for $10. Go figure!

I don't want to hear another word about fair trade from the same lips that complain about paying the real cost of gasoline. We got just a taste during the post-Katrina weeks. Everybody was talking about gouging and blaming the government. Now the price has gone down by over 30%. Shall we congratulate the government for putting the subsidies back in place so that we can maintain our tunnel vision? I would rather pay more for gasoline from an independent dealer - and they're hard to find these days - than use my dollars to vote for the war profiteers.

The answer to the opening question is that the dumbing down of the presidency and the electorate go hand in hand. It's a bitter pill to swallow, but we do indeed have a representative democracy. I saw it as a teacher in the 70s and 80s in the early stages of grade inflation and high school graduates who couldn't read or balance a checkbook. My parents' generation saw it as war heroes garnered votes over intellectuals. In this representative democracy, a military rank or "decoration" is an asset while a PhD is a liability.

Sorry, folks - We're still the radical fringe. As a people, we will continue to get what we ask for.