I had a dream about GWB a few months ago that was so incredibly vivid and real...

I was a journalist at a press conference and GWB was answering questions. And a lot of the media were asking hardball questions. And I saw Bush lean under the table and push a button and all of a sudden the fire alarm went off and we had to evacuate. And I'm screaming "didn't you see?! He did this! I saw him..." etc etc until I was hurried off by the secret service.

Yeah. I don't think that my unconscious thinks much of the administration either.

Danf, did it actually hurt when Rummy removed something from your hair, or was the 'ouch' more because he invaded your personal space or surprised you?

It hurt slightly. . .like a little prick (unintended pun here).

I wear my hair in a pony tale, so it is pretty flat on my scalp. If you have ever picked debris out of hair like that, there is a feeling associated with it.

Bob Costas. He's the only public figure to show up, and he has done so more than once. I like Bob Costas.

A while back I had a dream where I was riding a motorcycle through eastern Colorado and I stopped at this little diner/cafe in a small town and it was full of Ewoks. The guy behind the counter said "these are enemy combatents" and then I saw that one of the Ewoks had George Bush's head on his plate and was poking at it with a fork.

Danf, I wonder if there's any way in which Rummy's activities, or some aspect of the war itself, have inflicted personal pain on you.

If it's not really about the war and Rummy, sounds like there's something annoying you and that you see efforts to fight back as ineffective. The way you tried to make a mark on him, and he shrugged it off and said it would come out in the laundry -- well, that's the Bush Admin teflon in action, but maybe it's also that there's some way in which you're feeling powerless to create as much of an impact on someone as they've had on you.

Or I could be full of shit.

I don't dream about celebrities too much myself. I did dream about John Travolta once, very oddly.

The other night I dreamed that my friend Barb and I were riding the Orange Line from downtown Chicago to Midway. The car was pretty full and this guy sat down next to me. (in real life you can't fit three people in the seats on the El) I wasn't particularly paying attention to him. After a couple people got off, he moved to an empty seat across the aisle and that's when I noticed it was Taylor Hicks from this season of American Idol. We made small talk, then he got off at the Western Avenue stop. After he got off I saw John Cusack on the train, standing by the door. It was weird.

Miko, who of liberal persuasion did NOT have feelings of powerlessness, dispair, and a sense of something being forced upon oneself, after the last general election?

I dunno, this dream came out of the blue, but at least (in the dream) I acted, rather than was passive. That part of it feels OK.

Oh, definitely, danf. I'm asking you to look for another level, though. I don't think dreams are just mental movies about strangers. They're about our own lives. Treat Rumsfeld, etc, as symbols for other things in your life, not as who they really are. What on a very personal level is causing you a feeling of powerlessness to change things? What is hurting or annoying you more than you can hurt it?