The gist of a conversation overheard at a bus stop between two women and 1 man, also waiting for the bus, on my way home this evening.

Woman #1: (to group she’s with): You know, I heard something on the radio today about some sort of election down there in the United States.

Woman #2: I think I did to

Man with group: Yes, they are going to elect a new president or something next week… something to do with those people from Iraq that attacked those buildings in New York with their weapons of mass destruction.

Woman #2: So it was Saddam Hussein who did that?

Man (with knowing look to group): Yes, but some people say that isn’t what really happened so they’re having an election about it.

Woman #1: I’m sure glad that the Americans went to war so we don’t have to worry about that sort of thing here anymore either.

Man: He was very dangerous and just about the whole world got together and helped attack him (man looks around the greater group, about 10 people, at the bus stop for validation)

stageleft (having a smoke, drinking a cup of coffee, and quickly tiring of this tripe): Well actually Saddam Hussein had nothing to do with the attacks on the World Trade Center or the Pentagon and most of the countries that joined Bush in the war didn’t actually do any of the fighting at all, in fact very few of them did.

Man (looking slightly irate either because his thunder has been stolen or he doesn’t want to look dumb in front of the women): How do you know?

stageleft: Because it’s been investigated left, right, and center, even by the Americans and everybody agrees he had nothing to do with it…. the countries that joined the American coalition are listed on the Internet, it’s a pretty long list but when you think about it, what did Ethiopia or Iceland do?

Woman #2: Ethiopia had something to do with it?

Woman #1 (while man mutters something about “the internet”): But didn’t he give them weapons of mass destruction to attack and kill those poor 5,000 Americans?

stageleft: No he didn’t, Iraq didn’t have any weapons of mass destruction, and there were slightly more than 2,700 people killed that day, not 5,000.

Man (looking more unhappy): How do you know?

stageleft: Because the United Nations had an inspection team in there and they didn’t find any weapons of mass destruction and after the Americans attacked they looked and they didn’t find them either….. the number of dead is a matter of record.

Man (with a look that clearly says “Ah-huh!! I got ya now”): But president Bush said he did have them.

stageleft: President Bush said that before the war, afterwards they basically had to eat those words because they’ve never been found. Great Britain is in the same boat, they also said they were there and could be set up for use in less than an hour - none of it true.

Woman #1: How come you seem know so much about this?

stageleft: I listen to the radio, watch the news, and read the newspapers.

Woman #1: Then how come everybody thinks that Saddam Hussein had all those weapons and attacked like that?

stageleft (as the bus, thankfully, pulls up): Good question lady, maybe it’s because that’s what they want you to believe. Think about it.

Man (as the three, thankfully, walk towards the back of the bus away from me): I’m telling you I heard the president of the United States of America say………..

(The content of this post was cut ‘n pasted from the text file containing what was recovered from our previous system after our previous host mangled the database - comments, if any, were not recovered)