This awfulness over the Iraqi prisoner abuses is knotted up in my head with larger cultural issues, and I haven't managed to work it all out yet. But I think certain people need to remember the maxim of the buck stopping at the top. Also someone at the New York Times remembered to bring up the 1971 Stanford prison experiment, which I suspect may at least partly illuminate the situation.

I also find myself wishing, not for the first nor the last time, that John McCain were president. Not only would he have more straight-talking and -acting credibility in getting this mess straightened out, but I can't help suspecting it would have been less likely to happen under him in the first place.

I'm having one of those "our culture, politics and inter/national destinies are trundling downhill merrily in a handbasket and no one seems both able and willing to do anything real about it, SIGH" days.

contents of the purple tricycle are copyright 2004 carrie lynn king unless otherwise noted.