Now that the unspeakable criminal McVeigh has made W.E. Henley's Invictus a household word by using it to thumb his nose for the last time at the American people, what do you all think of the poem and that [expletive deleted]'s use of it?

For my part, I have never been a big admirer of the poem. I think it's overdone, stylistically, and the philosophy is questionable, even if not as abandoned to nihilism and infidelity as religious conservatives say. But now that the media, in their relentless pursuit of background material to add to the McVeigh story, have dug up the info on Henley, is turns out that it was probably written after he had had his left leg amputated because of tuberculosis of the bone, this at age 16. That background adds some interest to the sentiments expressed. And that makes McVeigh's use of it all the more outrageous. What did he suffer? A convicted and unrepentant mass murderer and terrorist, he enjoyed passionate legal representation (at whose cost?, I would like to know), 3 squares a day, decent housing, access to visitors and the media, and at the end, a far easier death than most people have. And he expects to be viewed as a martyr. O tempora! O mores!.

Whoops, excuse me; got carried away off the real subject. Await your reactions.