The circle of madness is complete.

From the 32 page book of rules for tomorrow night's presidential debates, I paraphrase:

The candidates are are not allowed to question each other or engage each other in any way.

Apparently the word 'debate' has just fallen into the Orwellian file of words whose meanings no longer exist or have changed completely.

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Also, I have figured out what America is really good at. On the spot t-shirt making. You may have seen the story of the 17ft long Great White shark that has been swimming in the shallows off Cape Cod, MA for the last week. During a network newscast last night along with spectacular images of the shark swimmng and twisting and breaching the surface of the placid bay, the camera panned to those on land, many of whom were wearing "Shark 2004" t-shirts and equally banal and low brow variants.

We make t-shirts for everything. "World's Greatest Dads", honor Students, children who fall down wells in Texas and even 9-11 themed shirts, an attack that killed 3,000 people (they went on sale not more than 24 hours after the attack - I don't seem to recall any "Pearl Harbor '41" or "Tet Offensive" shirts).

We are a nation of t-shirt crafters. The Peruvians have their sweaters and blankets, the French their wine and cheese, the Chinese their jade. We make cheap, cheesey, instantaneously memorializing and even more instantaneously dated t-shirts.

I don't think I can say anymore.