"What if 'the greatest story ever told' is a lie?"

Given the immense reactionary power of today's Church, and the violent intolerance of its fundamentalist minions, what more radical question could be asked?

No film has ever been in position to give a more penetrating answer than THE DAVINCI CODE. And…praise the Goddess!…it largely delivers.

It will be easy to fault this flick, and many will, for all sorts of reasons, including its often ponderous tone and mournful pace.

But whatever their pitfalls, this movie is a strong companion to a book that embodies a healing challenge to the virulent virus of reactionary "Christian" fundamentalism.

With a staggering 45 million copies in print, Dan Brown's DAVINCI is a force of nature. It's a solid murder thriller, full of twists and gadgetry, hidden riddles and secret codas.

But that alone cannot begin to explain the story's huge appeal. As they say in New Age circles, "there must be a reason."

Just the two of us
she on the swing
me pushing
somehow
content
just to do that
timelessly
time and again
for how long?

Forever.

The park is dark
gorgeously quiet
chill and damp
a late green afternoon
in the early spring
on a Sunday
Mothers Day
only us
and the bambis.

I push
the swing goes forward
it comes back
I push again
we are silent
except occasionally
I ask
"Do you know
how much I love you?"

"Yes Daddy."

Her four front teeth
two on top
two below
are now out.

She'll be seven
in two weeks.

That toothless gap
makes her talk
with a new lisp
excruciatingly cute
that devlish grin
fully vented
she pushes her tongue through.

I have to hug her.

When we're together
at moments like these
nothing lacks
there is no need
no further desire
no hole in space
or in time
that is not filled
with our love.

AUSTIN, Texas -- I hate to raise such an ugly possibility, but have you considered lunacy as an explanation? Craziness would make a certain amount of sense. I mean, you announce you are going to militarize the Mexican border, but you assure the president of Mexico you are not militarizing the border. You announce you are sending the National Guard, but then you assure everyone it's not very many soldiers and just for a little while.

Militarizing the border is a totally terrible idea. Do we have a State Department? Are they sentient? How much do you want to infuriate Mexico when it's sitting on quite a bit of oil? Bush knows what the most likely outcome of this move will be. He was governor during the political firestorm that ensued when a Marine taking part in anti-drug patrols on the border shot and killed Esequiel Hernandez, an innocent goat-herder from Redford, Texas. That's the definition of crazy -- repeatedly doing the same thing and expecting a different result.

This day has been long coming.  The graphs have shown it would soon be upon us: http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/node/9872  Now, here we are.  With this new Harris poll, available through the Wall Street Journal http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB114735765551950179-fy1LPeyuG4da_f... , President Bush claims the titlelong held by Richard Nixon: Least Liked President Ever (or at least since there have been polls).  And this data comes to us from before the USA Today reported on Bush's NSA secretly monitoring our phone records http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/node/10210

Bush's approval rating is now at 29%, and disapproval at an astonishing 71%.  Well, it's astonishing that it took so long to get there.  But it's also record-setting.  The best Nixon could do was 66%.  Nobody else comes close.  Bush is breaking new ground. 

Now that the $100 tax rebate proposed by the Senate Republican leadership as a response to rising gasoline prices has been discarded, it is time to get serious. Any effective response to climbing gas prices must recognize a geological reality, namely that the earth’s oil reserves are shrinking.

The amount of oil pumped has exceeded new discoveries since 1980. And the gap is widening. In 2004, for example, the world pumped nearly 31 billion barrels of oil while discovering fewer than 8 billion barrels of new oil.

Instead of encouraging gasoline use with tax rebates or gas tax holidays, we need a way to reduce gasoline use, one that is practical and politically acceptable. We need a higher gas tax, but the only way to get a gas tax rise large enough to wean us from imported oil is to offset the rise with a reduction in the tax on income.

The gas tax boost should be substantial—a rise that will send a strong, clear signal to consumers—and it should be gradually phased in. A gasoline tax hike of 30¢ a gallon per year for the next 10 years would send the right signal. This eventual increase of $3 per gallon would be offset at