Buried on pg. A14 of the Post:

Unless order is restored [in Iraq, Sen. Pete Domenici (R-NM) warned], "there is a real chance that the victory we claim is not a victory at all."

While dismissing universal observations of "anarchy," the administration is still trying to deal with Iraq by shipping soldiers in:

Rumsfeld said steps were underway to beef up the American military presence in Iraq by "plus or minus 15,000 additional US forces" in the next seven to 20 days.

-- All under the innocuous banner of Iraq Disorder Worries Senators (Washington Post 051503)

But how many people are going to read into that with front page headlines like Hussein Loyalists Blamed for Chaos and a frontpage teaser to read that Iran Said to Have Anthrax Ready? And even those stories bury little tidbits like that those alleging an Iranian bioweapons program, "the Mujaheddin-e Kalq, also known as the People's Muhajedin, is listed by the State Department as a terrorist group." And these "looters" and "criminals" turned "Hussein Loyalists?" Maj. Gen. Buford Blount III admits in the article's A23 extension, "They're not neccessarily centrally organized, but they pose a danger.."

It wouldn't surprise me if the newspapers were in cahoots with orthopedic surgeons in the hope that all this knee jerking would pay off for them in the long run.....

On a lighter note-- Here's a nice passage from a review of Lost in a Good Book, the most recent absurdist novel (a la Douglas Adams) by Jasper Fforde:

[Protagonist Thursday Next] is aided, in an unreliable sort of way, by her uncle Mycroft, a dotty inventor. It was Mycroft's prose portal that enabled all the text-tripping in The Eyre Affair-- something to do with altering the DNA of bookworms. Mycroft himself once took a trip into the Sherlock Holmes stories and somehow ended up as a character, mistaken for an older brother that, previously, Sherlock hadn't had.

As for Thursday's father.... well, perhaps he's best illustrated by the exchange with his daughter in which he explains that scientific thought is like a boy band"

"Every now and then a boy band comes along. We like it, buy the records, posters, parade them on TV, idolize them until--"

"-- the next boy band?" I suggested.

"Precisely. Aristotle was a boy band. A very good one, but only number six or seven. He was the best boy band until Isaac Newton, but even Newton was transplanted by an even newer boy band. Same haircuts-- but different moves."

"Einstein, right?"

"Right. Do you see what I'm saying?"

"That the way we think is no more than a passing fad?"

"Exactly. Hard to visualize a new way of thinking? Try this. Go thirty or forty boy bands past Einstein. Where we would regard Einstein as someone who glimpsed the truth, played one good chord in seven forgettable albums."

A very good point. If you have an hour or two, either Fforde's books are good, light reading (although a bit saccharine for my taste).
(The review was by Lloyd Rose in WP Book World 040603)

More soon.