In addition to the stories linked below, whose headlines only hint at their madness, there has been another school shooting, because we can’t keep children away from guns, while we obsess with keeping them away from marijuana.

Six fatalities from mixing Viagra and nitroglycerine have been announced. (This is not to be confused with dynamite sex.) The generation of sex, Viagra and Frank Sinatra, should have legalized marijuana when they had the chance.

The attempt to force a national standard for DUI blood alcohol levels has failed, and tobacco legislation is bogged down -- for all the wrong reasons.

None of the news stories – even, or perhaps especially, those about medical marijuana -- show any understanding of the absurdity of what we are doing. In a society that glorifies violence in arresting millions of marijuana smokers, the persecution of sick and dying medical marijuana users, and the demonization of an agricultural staple, how can we be surprised by any violence by children.

In a world dominated by "If it bleeds, it leads." journalism, violence is the one sure way to the modern nirvana, fifteen minutes of fame. Fortunately, most people are not self-destructive. Consider, though, the passive alienation of so many young people, who are just old enough to recognize hypocrisy when they see it.

All of the above are symptoms of this hypocrisy, and its intellectual equivalent, what I call "the war on meaning." We have lost our moral and intellectual compass.