hey, who's playing the violin? and does anyone smell smoke?

This morning on Daily Kos, Last Lemming asked the musical question, "Hey, has anybody noticed we have another anthrax outbreak[?]":

I truly feel I have walked through the looking glass--nothing on TV, nothing in the press, and essentially nothing even on the liberal blogs. Hey--as far as I can tell from the few outlets that have reported it, they found anthrax in the Pentagon mailroom--shocking yes but even more shocking is that no one really seems to care

and then he referenced a few sources that do, in fact, suggest that

they found anthrax in the Pentagon mailroom.

And the indifference that Last Lemming notes reminded me of something that disquieted me when I read the AGN at 5:30 this morning. Apparently they also found white powder in Kel Seliger's mail:

The Amarillo office of state Sen. Kel Seliger, R-Amarillo, received a letter Friday that reportedly was laced with powder and made terroristic threats against the senator, President Bush and the United States.

And-- like the Newsroom Neros that so upset Last Lemming-- Seliger's office seemed strangely unconcerned. They reported the incident to . . . (are you ready for this?) . . . the Amarillo Police Department.

It's hard to tell what this all means. But in an era when urban mythology insists that you can be locked up and grilled by Men In Black for joking about bombs while boarding the puddle-jumper to Dallas, it sure seems like these incidents are being treated a bit cavalierly by someone.

SPACEDARK