our plus de renseignements, visitez notre site web 'A", which simply means "for more information visit our website at...". The product I had just received was a pair of ink cartridges for my Fax machine. The order was taken on the 'phone by a young woman in Canada. The ink was made in Japan and then assembled in China. We are simply the purchasers and users. They tell me that I shouldn't worry. I wonder. What comes next? Whatever role we play in the invention, design, finance, construction, advertising and delivery of the goods, there must be an inventive soul here who can make it easier to open the items. It seemingly becomes more and more difficult to break through the plastic casing that binds the items we buy.

Let me thank a thinking woman named LeeAundra Temescu for the following fact that I never knew, and now that I do, I feel "validated," (which to those reading this outside the United States means that I can park at a lower than published price for a while). She has written that "There is vastly more nothing than something". Roughly 74% of the universe is "nothing", or what physicists call dark energy; 22% is dark matter, particles we cannot see. Only 4 percent is baryonic matter, the stuff we call something. It's hard to resist the temptation of saying..."and it will all, soon, be made in China. She sort of lost me with this one, "And even something is mostly nothing. Atoms, overwhelmingly, consist of empty space. Matter's solidity is an illusion." I still believe it requires packaging.

So Sally Fields, that fine actor, winner of an Emmy as best dramatic actress, was censored by the Fox Network, for in her enthusiasm and zeal, she had the temerity to make an anti-war statement which included the word "goddamn". Ms. Fields was cut off as she concluded a tribute to mothers by saying, "If the mothers ruled the world, there would be no goddamn wars in the first place!" She wasn't the only one on whom they used the broadcast delay's cut button. The network also cut away when comedian Ray Romano made a sexually suggestive remark and when Katherine Heigl uttered a profanity in response to her win as supporting actress in a drama series. But in the case of Sally Fields, I doubt whether her language would have been considered profane by the Federal Communications Commission. Could it be that they "erred on the side of caution" because Fox is owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation and a negative mention about the war just might not sit well with the pro Administration and Pro Bush views of the war in Iraq they frequently reflect? Just a question.

Speaking of Television, did you watch the Spanish language network's debate of the presidential candidates, recently? It was an amazing and historic broadcast. Univision's audience, for the bilingual presidential debate, attracted the most 25-54 year-old viewers of any televised debate thus far. That, of course, is the golden demographic, sought by the most sponsors. You can bet there'll be more of them. Besides, news in English is available on many channels. For those who consider the high percentage watching in Spanish let me remind you that people who aren't born in the United States get much of their news from Spanish-language outlets. The shift from Spanish to English-speaking media generally occurs during the second generation.

Two names I've never mentioned, despite seeing them over and over, ad nauseum, on television: Britney Spears and Anna Nicole Smith. Having, accidentally, seen a replay of her performance on the MTV awards, is it possible that Britney is challenging the late Anna Nicole?

How the years pass so fleetingly. Six years now since the 9/ll attack had such a devastating impact on the nation, the survivors and, of course, the World Trade Center. Since that time several of the world's tallest buildings have been planned, designed and constructed. Virtually nothing has happened at Ground Zero.

I'd just like to know; perhaps you can help me understand. Why does the actor turned politician, Fred Thompson, run for the presidency of the United States? His term in the United States senate was anything but distinguished. And he is already running among the top three Republican candidates. He's fine on television playing fatherly or avuncular characters, but what, if anything, does he offer the country? Does he have any fresh ideas? Maybe it is simply that the Republican multitude of candidates has failed to win much enthusiastic support and he's an unknown quantity.

O.J.Simpson's so-called "sting operation", aimed at recovering his personal memorabilia from a collector in a Las Vegas hotel room, got all screwed up. The armed robbery investigation continues. Even if the police end up believing Simpson's explanation, that he was reclaiming stolen items from him, the attorney for Fred Goldman is seeking to have the memorabilia seized and sold as partial payment for the 1997 wrongful-death judgment in the deaths of Nicole Brown Simpson and Goldman's son, Ronald. This is a vile and violent human being who, eventually, will pay a price for the life he has lived.

Should teachers be allowed to pack a gun in the classroom? Of course not, but there are those pushing hard to make that a reality. "Jane Doe" may well have what the NRA would determine is a legitimate reason for being armed, but district policy in Oregon, prohibits anyone, save for law-enforcement officers from bringing a weapon onto campus. "Jane Doe" is pushing one of the nation's hottst political buttons at the moment: guns and school safety. Throughout the country, lawmakers are filing bills that would make it legal for adult school employees to carry firearms. Gun rights groups and school boards around the country are paying close attention to this Oregon legislation, They push the line that the Colombine High School mass murder in Colorado and the Virginia Tech University mass killing might not have happened had guns been available to more people on campus. I'd very much like to hear your view. My view is that guns do kill people..lots of them. Mostly innocent people.

If the draft were to be re-instated in this country, the war in Iraq would soon be concluded and the troops withdrawn. Not, as the Republicans love to claim, that we would be defeated, but simply based on reality. If the sons and daughters of the wealthy and the middle classes were called to action, the influential parents would make enough noise and show sufficient clout, that the war would end. Bobby Kennedy said it clearly and well when he advocated an end to student deferments as the best route to ending the Vietnam war. If the war in Iraq depended on a draft, our troops would have been withdrawn long ago, or perhaps they would never have been sent there.