"I love Big Brother." - G. Orwell, '1984'

All this high-flown rhetoric, clangs like a broken bell (is that the liberty bell?). It is the day after Inaguration Day. Freedom (the state of being free) and Democracy (social and political equality, with respect for the individual - equal and different) are supposed to be good things, and yes, indeed, I believe they are, but it is amazing how these words (coming from Little Bush) can sound like ominous threats, or spiteful punishments, that we (the USA, this Military Behemoth) will mete out to smaller countries throughout the world. There is no country, in the history of the world, that has spent so much on weapons and armies, and you know that this skews our self-image and our image with friends and foes alike. A strong military power in perpetual war with a shadowy enemy (see Orwell's 1984) is a perfect threat to freedom and democracy. Power consolidated leads to a redefinition of terms: when is torture no longer torture? When it is applied to enemies who 'hate freedom.' What's really sobering: a frightened populace willing to give up freedom for security. To fight terror with terror = more terror. We live in the belly of the beast. Watch out for those wielding high-flown words.