Last night, my wife and I were watching the latest episode in the "Inspector Lynley Mysteries" on PBS. A series of seemingly related murders - extending over a twelve year period - left one police inspector to suggest any similarities to be coincidences. Inspector Lynley retorted: "I'll take a conspiracy to coincidence any day." Interesting: when the state is trying to unravel wrongdoing, it is eager to look for conspiracies; when the rest of us are trying to understand political wrongdoing, our search for conspiracies is regarded as evidence of paranoia.