Don't know if I can address all of your points prag, but I will try.

1. As far as key people being missing, I feel you are partly right. There are some posters that I have wanted to hear an opinion from; while there are others who are so damn opinionated and predictable that I have been glad to see them go. When I went down frans throat with a Claymore it wasn't because I dis-agreed with her. It was because I was sick of seeing her manipulate her own posts to keep them on the board under the system the Fray was trying out. I don't care if she ever comes back.

2. The decline in intellectual dis-course isn't complete just yet. I've posted some entertainment type info for Tex because I thought she might be interested but I'm not sure about the "touchie-feely posts." I don't read every post and reply so I may have missed the ones you are referring to. I mentioned in a previous post also, that we are in a kind of limbo on issues. The election campaign has started early yet the candidates aren't saying a lot you can debate one way or the other. They are being so careful to not make a major faux pax this early that they all sound like Boy Scout Troop Leaders.

3. The desecration of the Wall was the act of a coward but it received little if any main stream press. If it wasn't for a couple of Washington TV stations we might never have heard about it. Seeing something associated with Viet Nam being defiled doesn't surprise me. An entire part of a generation(us) was defiled by the other part(them); so desecration of a monument is about par for the course.

4. My Vets group went to the Memorial to be there for the dedication. It was a surreal day; some vets were pissed because of the style of the Memorial, others were just glad to see that one had been built in their lifetime. We all looked old beyond our years and had to laugh at how we had turned out or else we would have wept. We all hugged total strangers just because we had one bond in common; we had survived. I found all the names I was looking for including one that I didn't know personally but had heard of. It was a kid from Missouri whose last name was Deathrage. I have always wondered if he had his name changed from something else because he could foresee his fate early on.

5. As for the Middle East and it's oil; sometimes when my mind wanders more than usual, I envision some Cal Tech graduate in his garage coming up with a Perpetual Motion Engine that runs on air and exhausts water. I can even imagine the world wide panic as the US shuts down it's petroleum business while Osama has a stroke trying to figure out a way to get the US to come back and look for him. Silly dream I know, but a pleasant one.

Cagle is far from dead, just a little fatigued and saving up for the next round when the primaries start.