I am in hopes that lighter fare will take a small amount of time during the newscast. I am a Fallon fan and enough of an anglophile to appreciate royal wedding plans. However, I had to read about a possible Afghanistan 13+ year war on Richard Engel's blog. Which leads me to my real query: Did Mr. Engel suffer negative consequences as a result of the ink cartridge mail bomb exchange between Brian Williams and Engel? It seems that Mr. Engel has been noticeably absent from news programs. I do not think the White House should have any say in how or who reports stories. The notion that the bomb threat is less real because it appears inept is ludicrous. Roadside bombs-fake or real- are all real with different levels of terror. Richard Engel has earned his expertise and gravitas through great sacrifice and dedication. Perhaps Americans are tired of war but so are the troops. As long as they give their lives we should pay attention!

to give an idea of how scary mania can be, the bottom picture is what my kitchen floor, cabinets and walls looked like after one very bad manic, not up to the ceiling, but at least to the knees, on the walls. i was getting paint all over t-shirts i had thrown on the floor, so if i hadn't had the paint in my hands, it would have looked like i was whipping someone who was laying face down on the floor. in one of the churches on my manic run through texas in '94, a different time, the laity in the office of the catholic church showed me the statue they had of jesus christ and what he must have looked like after they whipped him with the jagged metal pieces on the end of the ropes, hamburger meat. kind of like slicing yourself repeatedly with the lid of a tin can after you opened it. he would have died from that, i would think, he would have bled out. i did the same to a beautiful piece of embroidered pansies that my mother did when she was young that she had given me. i'm sure that broke her heart when she saw all of that awful paint over her work. i don't even remember that. i didn't see it until years later when i was cleaning at their home and found the destroyed piece of embroidery in one of the drawers in the laundry room. my manic file was so awful that i didn't even have to apply for social security disability. i applied for ssi and when the first check came, it was social security disability. i sure hope that our soldiers who are returning with post traumatic stress disorder and other mental issues are not this bad. i'm surprised that i lived through that horrible timeframe of my life. i didn't pull up the article that i saw recently about priests expressing the need for more exorcists, but, if i had been in the catholic church at the time, it might have been an option. apparently, God held onto me through thick and thin. geesh. best, anna martina