My beloved Valentine (who has a cold - get well) has an on the scene report from a protest where a dangerous social rift seems to be developing along the fault line of support for the war:

As an impending war with Iraq looms like an outbreak of herpes on our collective lips, compounded with increasingly menacing terror threats, the American people are becoming more and more agitated.

Friends and families are divided like the North and South and have taken up arms against one another. What began as thoughtful discussion has turned into terror in another form.

On the scene from The Mall in DC where a crowd has gathered to protest the war in Iraq, an opposing army of pro-Bush protesters have crossed paths and what began as a peaceful protest has turned into a rowdy crowd of brutal beatings and violent outbursts.

Housewife and Soccer Mom, Betty from Bethesda screams, "My husband Larry is a lawyer and he has been talking nonstop about the war in Iraq. All he keeps saying is, 'The time has come to remove that ruthless dictator Saddam Hussein from Iraq before he hands over weapons of mass destruction to terrorist organizations.' I think he is full of shit and he is using his clearly superior intellect and knowledge of world politics to bully me around. I detest war on the grounds that it may hurt someone. Saddam's not bothering us, so why should we bother him."

From behind a line of policemen keeping the protesters away from each other, Betty's husband Larry shouts out a rebuttal.....