Could be more sinister than that, an attempt to stigmatize thinkers as weird. Especially when you look at the phenomenon of the rise of ADD. When I was growing up, there was no such thing as ADD, and,indeed, I don't remember having kids in my school who exhibited those symtoms. There were dumb kids, of course, and daydreamers, but I don't recall the weirdly restless, buzzy kids you see so many of now. So what caused ADD -- something in the water, like flouride? Or some food additive, or some form of pollution? We know that there are a number of chemicals in the environment today that mimic various hormones which then cause imbalances in animals, or, for instance, aluminum suspected in alzhimers. Perhaps in the dumbing down of Americans -- and there is a true dumbdown, US kids consistently get lower scores than kids in other countries -- those who weren't exposed to the same nerve agents, say, need to be now demonized as the "odd ones", the "weirdos", "too smart for their own good", and definitely "too smart for *our* good" that the proles need to watch out for along with the other terrorists. -- Harmon Seaver CyberShamanix http://www.cybershamanix.com