the Illuminati do not exist (this advert paid for by the Illuminati)

Sometimes it's refreshing and cathartic and healthy to let your wildest paranoid fantasies run amok. Anyone wishing to do so would have been given an obvious jumping-off point this week by the news of George W Bush commuting the 30-month jail sentence handed down to Scooter Libby. Obvious contrasts were drawn with his reluctance, during his tenure as Governor of Texas, to consider pleas for clemency for cases where the sentences were somewhat more draconian (i.e. yer actual death) and the evidence somewhat less clear-cut. Those defending the decision pointed out that Libby was still hit with a $250,000 fine, a not insignificant sum to most, though strangely he seemed to have little trouble coughing up a cheque out of petty cash.

An interesting footnote to the Libby case is the (genuine) digging up of his past life as an author of slightly suspect bestial porn. Link is quite safe, by the way. Don't expect to see this in the "the last book I read" category any time soon, though if anyone has read it, do let me know.

Other signs of the last days include: the usual two-headed goats being born, George W Bush and David Cameron, twelve-foot lizards both, rising to power (in Cameron's case I actually find this quite convincing), etc. More temporally, the whole business with Cheney and Bush blithely declaring themselves exempt from various legislation designed to promote openness in government, Cheney's blatantly unconstitutional shredding of documents, Bush's cosy relationship with Kenneth "Kenny Boy" Lay of Enron fame, his open admission of being guided by the voices in his toaster (or, as he would characterise it, "God"), the outrages perpetrated to this day at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay, their general smirking snickering contempt for the electorate and the rule of law - I could go on. Oh, hang on, I have. It all points to the imminent Rapture, with us unbelievers left behind to rut like beasts (great!) while the chosen ones sit around in heaven in white robes necking ambrosia (yawn!), or perhaps something more mundane.

Such paranoid ramblings lead one to speculate - will MonkeyBoy and He Who Casts No Shadow really just relinquish the reins of power in 2008 as the flimsy old US Constitution dictates? Or will some reason be found to stay on, in the interests of the country and the war on terror no doubt? Probably not. But.....