On Mon, 23 Apr 2001, Tim May wrote: [re: assassination politics] > Crediting Bell with this idea, when he only "arrived on the scene" in > the mid-90s, is absurd. Read some history. I went to the local production of Gilbert & Sullivan's _Utopia, Limited_ a few weeks ago. One of the characters in the opera is the "Public Exploder." His job? If the King should get too far out of line (as determined by two Wise Men), the Public Exploder blows him up and becomes King in his place. "Despotism tempered by dynamite." Not quite AP, but hey, they came up with it in 1893. Libretto and more at http://diamond.idbsu.edu/GaS/utopia/html/utopia_home.html -David
