— Bumper sticker of the week: The last time religion controlled politics, people got burned at the stake.

— Make-believe terrorism: Ah, the sweet smell of fear, rising up out of the muck created by our President and his merry band of fear mongers. You can tell an election is coming up. We’re back into “mysteriously vague” terrorist threats. Seems three guys in Michigan were buying cell-phones to blow up the Mackinaw Bridge. That would be a real blow to America! Ends up, well shucks, maybe that’s not what they were doing. And in London, a plot foiled by Tony Blair’s finest to blow up ten airplanes bound for the U.S. Ends up, some of the young Muslims supposedly involved didn’t even have passports. I’ll go a buck to anyone willing to wager that none will ever be found guilty of planning to blow up an airplane. What I think is going on is they want to keep us scared. So we’ll vote for them. I have never been one to entertain conspiracy theories. I just have a real hard time swallowing that the U. S. government would do some of these things intentionally to mislead us. But instead of becoming afraid, I’m becoming skeptical. Skeptical of what I saw on 9/11 and the resulting events since. I sure hope my skepticism is unfounded. Dial in Alex Jones at prisonplanet.com. See what you think. The truth can sometimes be an elusive thing. Anymore, I’m not sure who’s telling it.

— I miss Bill.

— How to shake off disappointment? Don’t do anything.

— Bush to the American people: We’re going to finish what we started. “Leaving Iraq before the mission is completed will send the wrong message to the enemy and will create a more dangerous world.” Yeah, right. Bush is clearly preparing for the Republicans to run on a platform of fear, terrorism, and patriotism, all bundled up into a neat little Karl Rove package. I can’t believe the American electorate would fall for this line of crap again.

— The counseling profession often encourages people to increase their self-esteem. I’ve never understood that. How do you increase your esteem? You do it by gaining respect, by living right, doing good, helping others, staying out of trouble, by being the best son or daughter, husband or wife, father or mother you can. These things gain you respect. You feel good about yourself. You gain self-respect. That I can understand.

— Have you ever felt this way before?

• Like you are the only person in the world with problems.

• Have you ever been so lonely you would welcome a Morman at your door?

• Has your heart ever been broken so bad you were considering open-heart surgery?

• Have you ever felt so in-tune with life that you forgot about yourself’?

• Have you ever wanted to forget something that you can’t?

— Darwin probably advanced civilization’s knowledge more than any other person, ever. He basically got most of what he was doing right. Remember, that was in the 1800’s, before Google or Ask Jeeves. To deny evolution is to deny common sense.

— I thought the city council done well rejecting two tax increases proposed by the city manager. Now is not the time to make life harder on Galesburg citizens. Paying for a BNSF fiber optic line or Seminary Street’s Railroad Museum is not going to help the average Galesburg resident. The city needs to start paring back its services. We have fewer people than we did 30 years ago. We have less revenue coming in. The city needs to contend with these facts. There’s a lot of fat that can be trimmed before essential services need cutting. I’d be glad to help.