More Imperial Nudity (and Sacred Untruths)

The "Cold War," with all its attendant fascist lunacies: "Protecting ourselves from Communist Aggression," the Arms Race, "Mutually Assured Destruction," the "Nuclear Umbrella." The Yalta and Potsdam conferences. The "Terrorist Attack" on 9/11/2001. The First "War in the Gulf" (boy, did Jean Baudrillard get that one right--it didn't happen). Pretending that Abraham Lincoln was not personally responsible for the single bloodiest conflict in American history--no wonder he suffered from depression. "The only use for Q-Tips is cleaning our noses and the outsides of our ears." Where do you begin? Last first: I once had a licensed medical doctor try to tell me that in order to get rid of the wax deposit in my ear canals I needed to swab them out with Q-Tips after every shower or bath--only he couldn't bring himself to say so; Conventional (or Sacred) Unwisdom holding it that Q-tips must never, on any account, be inserted even very gingerly in the ear canal. What he wound up saying was, "You know, after you bathe, you could take Q-tips and...you know...not put them in your ears but...The wax is softer then...And you could maybe...You know...."