Missile tests, an assassination and mass murder have pumped up tensions between India and Pakistan. Neocon war-drummers have insisted the US military can handle two major wars at a time, many fear troubles like these in South Asia and/or North Korea could soon test that brag.

Moreover, riots and protests in Muslim countries from Egypt to Bangladesh threaten to destabilize dynastic and tyrannical regimes Reagan-Bush Inc. has been only too happy to prop up.

But there's money to be made, so who cares? Not all those graduates of the Leona Helmsley School of Social and Economic Studies packing Bush Junior's inner circle, certainly.

Meanwhile, Tom Ridge and the FBI reveal that "Homeland Security" really means "Securing the Homeland from Dissent." Oh, where, oh where are Tom Paine and Henry David Thoreau -- or even Abby Hoffman and Wavy Gravy -- now that we really need them? Well, to paraphrase Pogo: in these times, They is Us.