The US state, the biggest bureaucracy in the history of the world, is so sclerotic that it can't even build effective monuments to itself anymore. See, for example, the WWII or FDR disasters in DC, or the OKC bombing memorial, which consists of a sea of bronze office chairs.

Today, in one of the endless senatorial commemorations of 911, I heard details of the first government 911 monument to open soon. It's a host of stainless steel benches, each with its own reflecting pool, to remember the Pentagon dead.

How interesting to see the expense and expanse of a Pentagon memorial to its own office employees as versus all the US soldiers killed in Iraq. Then there is the incompetence, banality, and bad taste.

This is the way the state ends, this is the way the state ends, this is the way the state ends, not with a bang but a tschotschke.