THIS GUY USED TO HAVE A VETO OVER TENURE AT A PROMINENT UNIVERSITY Retired Dean Hubert G. Locke is at it again.

"Everywhere one turns these days everyone is discussing the possibility of war -- and doing so with unconcealed anxiety. It is a pity of incalculable proportions that in a period of such widespread uncertainty -- with the nation buffeted by a shattered economy, awash in revelations of corporate greed, with the stock market in disarray and a pervasive dread about the prospect of having to face more acts of terror on our own soil -- that we should find ourselves in the hands of and at the mercy of national leaders with such a frighteningly perverse set of national aims and objectives."

Is it really unconcealed anxiety everywhere? Or have some of us reluctantly concluded that until there are constitutional republics in Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Palestine, and Saudi Arabia, we are not safe in our homes here. Is it really accurate to speak of a "shattered economy" in which unemployment rates are still lower than what some of the Wise Experts used to think was the non-inflation-accelerating rate of unemployment? Is it really any surprise that if tax dollars go for corporate welfare, that rent-seekers won't seek those rents? And if the equilibrium price of a stock is fifteen times permanent earnings, is it really disarray to see a restoration of equilibrium?

Dean Locke, do you owe promotion committees at the University of Washington an apology?