Before George W. Bush’s Iraq speech last Tuesday, I was challenged to a drinking game: every time Bush mentioned 9/11, I should down a shot of tequila.

Children, listen to me: don’t engage in any recreational activity designed to destroy your brain cells. You’ll wind up getting the strangest ideas. Like this:

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales has argued that the United States is not bound by international law and dismissed the Geneva Conventions as “quaint.” Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, dissenting in one case, said “due process requires nothing more than a good-faith executive determination.”

Republicans in Congress briefly changed their own party rules to let Tom DeLay keep his job as Majority Leader even if he was indicted for a crime. They also tried to change Ethics Committee rules to protect DeLay and other members accused of ethical violations. Republican Senate leader Bill Frist developed a plan to overturn inconvenient Senate rules by dictate of the Vice President. In a newspaper interview, DeLay griped about the very existence of judicial review, the right to privacy, and separation of church and state.

I can’t say they believe in no law whatsoever. They have repeatedly stepped into some of most personal and private activities and decisions of other human beings. But they clearly like to keep themselves beyond the reach of any law.

It reminds me of the famous line of occultist Aleister Crowley: “Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.”

Uh, have we been wrong all this time about which religion the religious right follows?

See, children? Crazy talk! If you must play drinking games during President Bush’s speeches, try this one: down a shot of tequila every time Bush tells the truth. You’ll be surprised how little brain damage you will suffer.

New York Times columnist Frank Rich:

The president has no one to blame but himself. The color-coded terror alerts, the repeated John Ashcroft press conferences announcing imminent Armageddon during election season, the endless exploitation of 9/11 have all taken their numbing toll. Fear itself is the emotional card Mr. Bush chose to overplay, and when he plays it now, he is the boy who cried wolf.

In the original story, the boy cries wolf because he thinks it’s funny. In the current version of the story, Bush and Company cry wolf because they think there’s a political profit to be made. The real crime of both is that their lies dull our preparedness by blurring this important truth: there are wolves out there.

Got music playing in iTunes while I work. Up comes “Wichita Lineman,” written by Jimmy Webb and sung by Glen Campbell. Stopped working, in awe.

“And I need you more than want you, and I want you for all time”

Damn. That may be the single finest line ever written in any song.