Anna's Soapbox

First, the good stuff: Lazarus is doing much better after a week or so with a cold and ear/throat infection and then a sudden, scary allergic reaction to amoxicillin. His beautiful baby face, bright red and splotchy yesterday, is back to just rosy and healthy today. And he's happy again, too:



Now for some bad stuff: Justice Dept. Drafts Sweeping Expansion of Anti-Terrorism Act. Although the DoJ has denied its existence, "Patriot II" will, according to the Center for Public Integrity, "give the government broad, sweeping new powers to increase domestic intelligence-gathering, surveillance and law enforcement prerogatives, and simultaneously decrease judicial review and public access to information." Some people think this is entirely appropriate. Terrorism and the axis of evil and all. No, we the people don't need access to infomation -- "Let them have duct tape!" cries King George II.

It has come to this -- Code Orange Alert and duct tape. Years from now, how will I explain to Lazarus the state of things during his first year of life? It seems like the grim opener to one of those early, un-Disney-fied fairy tales that scared the crap out of kids but also gave them a glimpse of true evil as well as life happily ever after. Heroes and heroines of yore, however, had more compelling advisors than Don Rumsfeld and John Ashcroft, and certainly more effective implements than duct tape to ward off evil and slay dragons.