I've never quite gotten the flag, and growing up, I thought that was part of the point. Didn't everyone else sit through history class and learn how country after country had followed jingoistic rhetoric, crass manipulative symbolism and other tricks of the trade to go get slaughtered? I once read the final chapter to "Johnny Got His Gun" on air - at one point, that was required reading, no?

It's hard to see why Assange's current approach to Hillary's records isn't illegal - the emails were obtained illegally, the material isn't presented as news but as a threat, a form of harassment and libel. He'll be putting out "teases" and it could have a "significant impact" on November. He's trading in stolen information to harass a candidate for our highest office - behind his walled protective space in a London embassy with no repercussions. It's a kind of pain free extortion or blackmail or simply a peculiar gaming site on the hill with ability to target characters and sling fireballs and explosives at them one by one. Julian at 13, forever and ever.

Since everything must be about Trump these days, and I've previously compared Trump to some kind of Willie Wonka (though more the bizarre psychically-damaged Johnny Depp version), the passing of Gene Wilder is a sad moment. I remember my joy at being able to turn my kids on to the original Willie Wonka, and his role in Mel Brooks' absurdly popular farting, Cole Porter tap-dancing, German kvetching deconstructionist comedy about the Wild Wild West, after too many billion movies applauding the destruction of a civilization with hardly a moment of second thought or self-doubt. It was arguably part of our national turn in the 70's - Jimmy Carter's "malaise" tied to Taxi Driver and Nixon's resignation and other signs that something wasn't quite right even in Tinseltown, that our 60's celebration was off the rails.