"There is always trouble at the rig in TV-Truck-Commercial Land, and it always requires the truck-drivin' man to save the day by hitchin' his truck, with a heavy chain, to some massive object - a tree, a building, a tectonic plate, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy - and towin' it up a boulder-strewn mountain, while Bob Seiger shrieks,"Like a rock! Ooooowww, like a rock!" with the intense, sincere passion of a man who has a rabid shrew in his undershorts." (Courtesy Dave Barry)

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Dec. 22, 1944 - During the Battle of the Bulge, Gen. A. C. McAuliffe delivered his famous response to the the German demand for surrender at Bastogne: "Nuts!"

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Long time COFFEE readers will recall that Dallas Morning News Letters Editor Jim Frisinger announced some time back that the winds of editorial change were blowing at the News.

Dallasites may be understanably skeptical. Granted, the News published Lou Dubose's critique of George W. Bush during the 2000 Presidential Campaign. With Molly Ivins, Dubose had recently co-authored The Short but Happy Political Life of George W. Bush, which was anything but lauditory of the candidate. The column summarized the book's arguments, that Dubya had no business running the country.

But when the News' candidate recommendation list appeared, the paper, as usual, voted virtually pure Republican... As did Dallas, as did Texas, so the paper represents it's readership... Still, one hoped for more fresh air.

And it arrived in yesterday's Sunday Reader. Perhaps the News has previously published an essay by Noam Chomsky and I missed it, or have forgotten it. At any rate, I was surprised and delighted by the appearance of "Do You See What I See" on Page 1H. MIT professor Chomsky is an unapologetic member of the Northeastern Left and a political gadfly. His critique of of US foreign policy, that for years tolerated Saddam Hussein with his slaughters, gassings, and massacres, and now invokes "the Doctrine of Change of Course," is thought-provoking.

Chomsky characterizes the doctrine as follows: "Yes, in the past we did some wrong things because of innocence or inadvertance. But now that's all over, so let's not waste time on such boring, stale stuff." This stance is "dishonest and cowardly," says Chomsky. I don't necessarily agree that it's cowardly, save in an intellectual sense. But it is dishonest - and cynical as hell.

Even if you think anything short of adoration of our only President is heresy, Chomsky's essay is worth reading and thinking about. This URL should get you close enough:

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Thanks to Father Ed Sholty for showing me how to upload text to website.