Friends came by yesterday to play Risk with the kids, me, and my treacherous wife. One of the visitors won the game, which was fun but exhausting, as it coincided with that day's Maximum Cough Period.

Back before the childish GOP invasion of Iraq, a woman we know wondered in an email how they could possibly think this was a good idea. I understood the stated reasons, and detailed them in an email reply. I also added my conjectures, including the establishment of permanent military bases. I added that hoping to accomplish all this without an insurgency was like hoping to have a picnic at which no ants showed up. I thought that this metaphor indicated that I was not a believer in the insane GOP hookah dream. But I did not use words like 'insane,' just tossed in the ant metaphor. Not long after the first bombings and killings by the bad guys, I wrote a follow-up email in which I recapped my picnic metaphor and wrote, 'Well the ants showed up.' She replied that it was refreshing, or admirable, for me to admit that.