The Burning Man grand finale: Setting 400 billion dollar bills on fire

On Labor Day weekend, in the Nevada desert, with 43,000 people watching, "The Man Will Burn". Will I be there? Hell no. I'll be in a Motel 6 in Reno, trying to recover from nasal congestion and a week without sleep.

"Will you come back to Burning Man next year?" the man at the exit gate asked me as I left. Hummm.... Probably not. But I wouldn't have missed THIS Burning Man for the world. It was amazing. Absolutely amazing. Everyone in the world should go at least once.

Meanwhile, however, while you are waiting to buy your ticket for next year, there's another kind of fire that you don't have to go 100 miles out into the Nevada desert in the middle of a sandstorm to watch. You can watch THIS amazing fire right in the comfort of your own living room. Just turn to any news channel on TV and you can watch the latest episode of "The Neo-Cons" as they set fire to a pyre of 400,000,000,000 dollar bills -- OUR dollar bills.

Yes, "The Man will Burn". Every night. In Iraq.

Understand this, America, and understand it well. Whenever you spend dollars on war instead of on food, health, education, housing and art -- whether it's spent here or abroad -- you might as well be holding a cigarette lighter next to George Washington's portrait on a greenback and setting it on fire.

War is a waste. It is a total waste. And anyone who tells you differently does NOT have your best interests at heart.