I was speaking at a DMA conference a while back, and was doing my pass around the exhibitor floor when I ran into a booth with a sort of nondescript name and a cryptic business tag line.

Yesterday, I had a growing sense of anxiety. Today, full-blown rage. In the last hour, I've left messages every 5 minutes with my IT guy, who's been out of town at a conference. I just yelled at my wife. After swearing off coffee a month ago, I just poured myself a cup.

Listening to this week's 9/11 hearings testimony regarding the FBI's complaints that lack of funds made it difficult to do its job properly, I was reminded of an incident that took place about a year ago.

Here is a little insight into a columnist's life: Around Sunday I start thinking: What the heck am I going to write about this week? Monday goes by--no problem: I still have two days to come up with something. Tuesday I start to sweat a bit. Wednesday, full-blown panic sets in. So this week, I'd like to give special thanks to Google for their non-April Fool's joke Gmail.

This week I was listening to NPR's Fresh Air interview with Richard Clarke, who informed us that the Bush White House maintained a rigid set if ideas that were untarnished by facts. Facts were selectively used to justify an already held position, and facts that challenged that view were ignored, according to Mr. Clarke.