George,

Was it Samuel Johnson who said something about patriotism being the last refuge of scoundrels? Could the Bush administration be trying to clothe their barren policies in the flag?

Kay Peaslee (electronic mail, September 17, 2001).

Editor's Note: No doubt one has to be somewhat concerned about political opportunism in the face of crisis. In this instance, we have already seen examples of opportunism from Israel's Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and from the Revs. Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson.

According to iconoclast H. L. Mencken, "Samuel Johnson's saying that patriotism is the last refuge of scoundrels has some truth in it but not nearly enough. Patriotism, in truth, is the great nursery of scoundrels, and its annual output is probably greater than that of even religion. Its chief glories are the demagogue, the military bully, and the spreaders of libels and false history. Its philosophy rests firmly on the doctrine that the end justifies the means - that any blow, whether above or below the belt, is fair against dissenters from its wholesale denial of plain facts" (Minority Report).

A "New Map of the Middle East" was recently sent to me by a friendly Texan, a noticeably revised version of a similar map circulated at the time of the Gulf War.

Texas Toast

We will all each have to judge for ourselves the motivations for and the impact of the Bush administration's response to the horrific attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.