The second insinuation is that this current economic slowdown or recession, is a Bush recession. How do you figure that? I seem to recall the warning signs of this were on the horizon over a year ago (the stock market drop in March 2000, for one), but it was the INACTION of your Pagan god, then that, in part, caused this to happen now. Finally, your swipe at Bush and Cheney for leaving it to Californians to deal with THEIR energy problems is laughable. I find it "Wacky" that a state that has seen its population nearly double in the past decade finds it more important to protect the Spotted Owl rather than build more power plants. I find it even "Wackier" that in the face of this crisis, there are those who want to dismantle existing hydroelectric plants and dams (which would cause a water crisis as well). The blame for this not only sits at the feet of the extreme environmentalists, but at the heads of some of the corporations that have fueled this economy. I believe I had read that those in charge at Cisco Systems defeated one proposed power plant that they would have benefited from because it would have disrupted the scenic view from their headquarters! Thank God there are other parts of the country that would gladly relocate these corporations and build enough power plants to supply them now and in the future. Not long ago, the head of Intel was asked about future expansion in the Golden State, to which he replied that he didn't believe in building in Third World countries. AMEN to that!

Michael T. Peabody

Editor-in-Chief David Gewirtz responds
Wow, you're quite wacky there yourself, Michael. Even so, buried somewhere in your bizarre rant are the germs of truth. There is certainly some disagreement among economists as to whether the recession in the early 90s was on the decline before Clinton was elected. However, it is clear that Clinton ran on an "It's the economy, stupid" platform and won, while Bush ran on a platform stating the economy was fine, and lost. It is also true that some of California's power problems are the fault of the residents, but when a major part of your country is in crisis (whether their fault or no), it's just plain wrong for a president to tell them they're on their own.

Now, as for your truly nutty "Pagan god Clinton" thing, man, that's clearly pretty wacky all on its own, although certainly creative. First of all, I personally know many pagans, they're all wonderful people, and I suspect that Clinton would be very far from their god since they're usually talking about goddesses and such and have a very defined set of values which I think are in considerable divergence from those of Clinton.

I personally liked Clinton. I thought he was bright and certainly far more entertaining than your average president. He clearly made some enormous mistakes (including getting caught with his cigar in the cookie jar), but he also was pretty well versed in the domestic and world situation, and I personally enjoyed his eight years in office. I fully doubt that Al Gore would have been half as much fun.