� Ted Turner, interviewed by Ken Auletta at a forum sponsored by the Newhouse School at Syracuse University

Why are we being so ridiculously polite? It's as if there were some sort of gentlemen's agreement that prevents people from stating the obvious truth that Bush and his colleagues are exhilarated and thrilled by the thought of war, by the thought of the incredible power they will have over so many other people, by the thought of the immensity of what they will do, by the scale, the massiveness of the bombing they're planning, the violence, the killing, the blood, the deaths, the horror.

� Wallace Shawn, in "Fragments from a Diary" (The Nation, March 13 issue; also, if you can pick up a copy of the March 24, the Tony Kushner piece is devastating)

September 11 did not do as much damage to the fabric of American society as we seem determined to do to ourselves. Is the Russia of the late Romanovs really our model, a selfish, superstitious empire thrashing toward self-destruction in the name of a doomed status quo?

� from John Brady Kiesling�s letter of resignation from the U.S. Foreign Service, sent to Colin Powell on March 12 (see also links on this page)

"We are going to be in such a fix when this war is over, or before this war is over � our grandchildren's grandchildren are going to be paying for this war� I look at our future as, I'm sorry, being very, very dark."

� Walter Cronkite, at a recent Drew University forum, quoted here

"God has ordered you to cut their throats."

� Saddam Hussein, quoted in Marc Santora�s "From Hussein, Defiance and Praise for His Troops" (NYT today)

Whenever I almost-have a hangover, there�s an emotional syndrome that goes along with the physiological one but is much more pronounced, all out of proportion. I am weepy and do not like myself and it is easy to imagine that no one else does either. I am vulnerable and tremulous, and at an animal level what I want more than anything else is to crawl into a quiet burrow and press my face into the sympathetic warmth of another animal. I feel hopeless. So, yeah, was drinking aplenty and doing the Nora Charles hostess act yesterday at the OP, early to bed and two glasses of water and I thought I was fine, and then a bit later in the morning it hit me hard. And I do not know whether it�s the same old syndrome or the fact that I�m thinking and reading more about the war and beginning to feel vulnerable and tremulous and hopeless for real. I started to read that Ted Turner interview and here�s the quote I wanted to use for the top of this entry, it jumped out at me right away because, well, you will see too: That's what they said when I started CNN: "You're not qualified to do it." I wasn't qualified to do anything, it's true. I was a classics major. Ha ha, right? Then I kept reading.

I watched some of "Hearts and Minds" yesterday while I was getting ready to host Steve and Stephen and Terry for pre-Oscars brunch. I was frying bacon in a long red evening dress, and it didn�t seem any more surreal than anything else. Every time I read Paul Krugman I can�t help remembering when Steve and I went telemarking and we were climbing in our skis up the side of the mountain � he made a joke, This is how we�re going to get over the unguarded border once the theocracy installs itself and we have to escape. And ha ha, right? The market�s down 3.61 percent today. The Supreme Court refused to hear a case on wiretapping, the challenge to which hinged on the necessity of making a distinction between criminal investigations and intelligence-gathering. I�m trying to track down the latest issue of Harper�s, in which appears an investigative piece on an elite religious organization called The Family, dedicated to converting the current and future political leaders who will instate a Christian-led government and � one country at a time � a Christian world. Ashcroft�s been a member for over 20 years.

I don�t feel like writing about my party. I don't feel like writing about my weekend.