Apparently there were anti-war protests in cities all over the country yesterday, but if you depend on the NYTimes for your news, you wouldn't know it.

It seems that everyone in the kingdom had been asked recently what they thought of how things were going in the land, and beyond. They had answered that they were very unhappy about many things, but most importantly they wanted the king's special war to end and their sons and daughters to come home. The king then asked all the wise men in the kingdom what he should do (apparently the wise women were busy). They told him that the special war should end and the sons and daughters of the people should come home. The king thought about all this for a while - a long while - and then he made his decision: He would make his special war bigger and he would declare that the sons and daughters of the people would have to stay away forever (with a visit home scheduled for every 24 months).

In the meantime, the royal court maintains that it is powerless to do anything to move or influence the king in even the smallest of matters. The people seem to believe them.

The people were very upset with the king: Several thousand of them [perhaps .00001 of the population] took to the sidewalks yesterday to say so, since there was no other way they could talk to the king. Unfortunately nobody told the king that several thousand of his subjects had taken to the sidewalks; the royal scribes didn't record the news about the sidewalks, but it didn't matter anyway, since the king doesn't read.

Today the people know for sure there will be no talk; the king doesn't do talk. The king only does war - very special wars.

Today the king knows for sure he can do anything he wants to do.

[image from and now for something completely different]