Dunce Nation

Hey everyone. I'm still having technical difficulties at the moment, but will keep trying to post up stuff as often as I can. Things are all feeling a little bit crazy and manic this end, wrapping up work, buying a car, planning where to go, and as ever, I'm stressed as hell before setting off and doing something new. I just keep reminding myself that most things worth doing aren't easy.

On other news, I read with interest the results from a Newsweek poll conducted on political and cultural issues in the US. Crooks & Lairs pointed out, one section was particularly noteworthy.

Even today, more than four years into the war in Iraq, as many as four in ten Americans (41 percent) still believe Saddam Hussein’s regime was directly involved in financing, planning or carrying out the terrorist attacks on 9/11, even though no evidence has surfaced to support a connection. A majority of Americans were similarly unable to pick Saudi Arabia in a multiple-choice question about the country where most of the 9/11 hijackers were born. Just 43 percent got it right — and a full 20 percent thought most came from Iraq.

Worst still, the number of people who are 'confused' about Iraq’s non-existent role in the 9/11 attacks has actually gone up - when Newsweek asked the same question in the fall of 2004, 'only' 36% said Saddam Hussein was “directly involved” with the attacks. I guess it all goes back to that great Bush quote, 'the hardest part of my job is to connect Iraq to September 11th...'