2500 protesters shut down lake shore drive in chicago, 1025 protesters are arrested in san francisco. nationwide, americans are clamoring for peace. the invasion of iraq has inspired worldwide outrage

16 british and american soldiers have paid the ultimate sacrifice just so that w can have his merry little war.

and here i am sitting on my ass. despite my general disgust of newscasts, i am enthralled by this utter madness, watching everything unfold like it were some movie, or worse, some reality tv show, and despite the seriousness and utter tragedy of it all, i can't help but think in the back of my head that, like all sequels, this sucks a lot more than the first one did. there's all this hype and exaggeration, all this artifice of drama and suspense, and when it comes down to it, it's just really, really boring most of the time, as reporters stand stupid and staring while the soldiers sensibly crouch in the darkness. but all they're really doing is watching and waiting. the rest of the time, it's just sad and depressing. off-screen somewhere, you know there are people being exploded into bits by bombs gone astray, or people getting torn apart by machine gun fire. we see none of this.

i wonder how long before the american public simply stops paying attention due to sheer boredom and the networks realize that they aren't getting viewership, so that they stop covering the whole thing.

what a brave new world order we live in.