They doth protest too much, he thinks

By now, any left-leaning American with a cyber-inbox most likely has received a note about "Not a Damn Dime Day," to be held Jan. 20. The e-mail, which claims no left- or right-wing agenda, urges consumers to boycott buying anything that day as a way to protest the war in Iraq.

The date also happens to be the same day of George Bush's presidential inauguration. What a coincidence, huh?

The note's genesis is unclear, but it started making the rounds in mid-December, and since then, bloggers and peace groups have posted it on their Web sites. "For 24 hours, please do what you can to shut the retail economy down," it reads.

Good luck. Americans spend nearly $10.6 billion a day on food and retail items, and Scott Krugman, spokesman for the National Retail Federation, didn't anticipate any meaningful effect come Jan. 20.

"We don't really see the correlation between retail and what this protest is for," he said.

Besides, it's one thing to forego that Happy Meal, quite another to hold off buying needed diapers when your 18-month-old baby has just eaten a heaping serving of pureed prunes.

-- Greg Saitz