End Signs

The End of Days is nigh.

I can think of no other explanation for the purchases I made yesterday on iTunes: several singles each by REO Speedwagon (gulp!) and Toto (gasp!) and, most shocking of all, the entire 16-track Ultimate Air Supply.

Maybe I was rattled by the series I'd just watched. As often as not, CNN leaves me muttering in disgust lately. (Wolf Blitzer: Do you have any shame left at all? Larry King: If you won't die, will you at least retire? Please?) But some of their specials are quite good, as was the case with Christiane Amanpour's* "God's Warriors," an equal-opportunity survey of religious nuts.

The ironic thing about zealots -- whether Christian, Jewish, or Muslim -- is how alike they are. Dead certain that they're right and everyone else is wrong; matched in their single-mindedness, rigidity, and intolerance. Their differences are relatively minor, except for how far they'll go to make a point. It's a rare Jew or Christian who'll blow himself up with a smile on his face.

It was an excellent series, and it left me feeling unsettled and slightly bereft. Hence Air Supply.

* I like her so much, sometimes I can even forget about her bangs. Girlfriend needs a makeover.