In the study of history, the Cock-Up Theory argues that our collective past is the sum of important people's endless errors and many inadequacies. This idea is also called the Theory of Cleopatra's Nose, which argues that Cleopatra's prominent prow so enticed the Roman leader Marc Anthony that he lost track of business back home and let the Roman Empire collapse into chaos.Silly historiography, right?

Well, maybe.

His supporters believed that Ronald Reagan planned to hasten the collapse of the Soviet Union by goading it to invest in military technology to circumvent our "Star Wars" missile interception system, (the Strategic Defense Initiative that never worked) and by undermining the Soviet economy to damage the civilian infrastructure and weaken ideological support for communism.

It may be that such was the plan. By the late 1980s the Soviets were running out of money and having trouble maintaining their civilian infrastructure; they had lost most of their ideological credibility and popular support: the system simply couldn't keep operating and collapsed, though it's debatable whether U.S. action caused it.

Saturday was a special occasion for my daughter and me. The question was: what would she most like to do, even if it happened to be the very last thing I could stomach, root canals and Republican sycophancies included. Sadie's answer (no wizard-worthy mystery there): a trip to "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix." It was an ashen experience all right. But nothing rising from it. As I told her when we were walking out of the theater, had there been a revolver handy, my brain splatters might not have made it out with the rest of me, and she and her mother would have gotten an expensive cleaning bill. The last time I was so mind-numbingly bored was sitting through the first installment of "Lord of the Rings."

Considering the U.S. economy's future, Crash Proof offers steps to avoid diminishing your standard of living

CNBC, the financial network, often lives up to what its critics call it - "Tout TV." All of the guests seemingly are singing from the same hymnal: "buy and hold stocks," "inflation is low," "economic growth is strong," "the Federal Reserve has everything under control," blah, blah, blah.

The AP story on the Senate vote last night can be found at apnews.myway.com//article/20070804/D8QQ0T6G0.html.

I find this cave-in most discouraging.

Because the bill evidently allows the executive to invade the privacy of Americans WITHOUT PRIOR APPROVAL OF ANYONE OUTSIDE THE EXECUTIVE BRANCH, it raises this vital question:

Is this legislation even constitutional?

Evidently, the FISA court does to some sort of review, but not only is it four months after the fact but -according to Jonathan Turley on COUNTDOWN last night- it is not a case-by-case review but a more general look at the "process." I find no reassurance there.

The question makes for customary newspaper fodder July 4 and other national holidays, although to me it's a 365-day fixation more interesting than inquiries into the meaning of life or the existence of god: What does it mean to be an American? The most reassuring answer is that there'd better never be an answer: American identity is best left elusive, less sure of itself than of its endless possibilities. Which is what makes the certainty of recent answers-when the question was posed to local newspaper readers-the more disquieting.

SPOILER ALERT: This article discusses the Harry Potter book series and contains spoilers including the ending of the final book just released in bookstores. Do NOT read if you do not want to know how the Harry Potter series ends.

KKLA is the largest Christian talk radio station in America. I hold a dubious record there - I am responsible for causing the largest number of complaint calls the station had ever gotten in a single day. The topic? Harry Potter.