When the idea for this issue's theme came to us one night in the midst of a particularly sordid Editorial Board Meeting, the Fed Staff understandably looked to me to explain what the Hell Radio Free America was. They still don't get it, I suspect. But you and I can talk man to man, intellectual to intellectual about important issues like the theme, without those little twerps and their incessant quizzical whining interrupting us. "Why do we have to keep telling everyone you are hot, Laurie?" "Why can't we publish a picture of a 900 pound naked person, Laurie?" "What happened to all the money we collected for advertising and how did you afford that Sony Playstation, Laurie?" "What font should headlines be, Laurie?" All day long I tell you: it drives me zany! At night I have dreams about rabid buzz saw wielding 4 year olds with octopuses on their heads. (That may be only tangentially related, come to think of it.) But now, sigh, he office is silent, ahhh, except for the thunderous booms coming from the machinery of evil downstairs in the Dean of Student's office as it cranks out yet another blood pressure-cooking pronouncement. But I'm used to that by now.

Radio Free America broadcasts the things you don't want to hear, but you can't bring yourself to turn it off. Coming to you live, without a permit, from somewhere on the fringe, Radio Free America covers the real deal, not The Man-approved spin, on contentious issues like the ethnic studies program and Columbia's fictitious sales pitch. Its project is The Fed's project: to undermine the establishment, to tell the truth. Like The Fed, it relies on its contributing writers to determine what that truth is.

Thank you for listening, and have a safe trip home.