AUSTIN, Texas -- Cheap irony and Christmas don't go well together. Christmas and war is another bad combination. But there it is. The only president we've got went down to the Capitol Area Food Bank in Washington, D.C., the other day for a photo op with people who can't afford to eat.

"I hope people around this country realize that agencies such as this food bank need money. They need our contributions. Contribution are down. They shouldn't be down in a time of need," said GeeDubya Bush.

Right away, we notice real progress. When Bush was running for the presidency in 2000, the feds released their annual report on hunger in America, and Texas was once again in its perennial spot at the top of the list, No. 1 in Hunger.

AUSTIN, Texas -- All right, fellow procrastinators. Of course, we have days to go before Christmas -- no point in precipitously plunging into purchasing yet. On the other hand, it is not too soon to begin thinking about just how long we can put it off. And following our customary habit of last-minute, one-stop shopping for all, check on the location of your nearest independent bookstore. Failing that, fall back on a chain. The bookstore is where you can't go wrong on everyone from Great Aunt Pearl to the new in-law who plays golf.

Among the year's special picks:

-- "War Is a Force That Gives Life Meaning," by Chris Hedges. A war correspondent for 15 years for The New York Times, Hedges understands on a visceral level what war looks like and does to people. But this book is more important for his extraordinary intellectual struggle to understand the phenomenon. He may not have all the answers, but he sure has some. Heartbreakingly intelligent.

Some resent the term "class warfare," but what a great description for our headlong rush to war with Iraq: Class Warfare. Ask yourself, "Who will benefit and who will pay?"

While there is no evidence of a connection between Iraq and Al-Qaida, there ARE many indications that war with Iraq will energize Al-Qaida and other terrorist groups. Why would anyone want that?

Plans were prepared for a war with Iraq BEFORE the attack of September 11. How could those plans result from an act of terrorism which had not yet occurred and which, by its own statement, the administration could not have anticipated?

If America's goal is to protect Iraq's neighbors, why are all its neighbors except Israel against the war? If our goal is to protect the larger world from a mad man, why has the rest of the world been so loath to support us?

Should young American men and women - most of whom are NOT from the privileged class - suffer or die in a war which will not reduce domestic terrorism, which will alienate the Arab world, which is at best only nominally supported by our allies, which will kill and

Thursday, Dec. 5, my friend Dr. Pete Livingston filed suit in Federal Court in Oakland, Calif., seeking declaratory relief to uphold his right to distribute the documentary "Over 9 Billion Dead Served." The feature-length film, a passionate anti-war commentary, is almost entirely comprised of clips from the 25 biggest box-office movies. Pete contends that his film is protected by the fair use doctrine. The fair use doctrine is designed to protect the use of copyrighted material without permission for the purposes of criticism and education.

Livingston's company, Not the Enemy Media, is currently being blocked by legal threats from Fox Entertainment Group, Columbia and Universal Studios. Film companies have denied Livingston permission to use even a single frame of their material. Universal went so far as to demand that Pete tear apart his documentary and remove the portions of their material.

Two hours past midnight on April 7, 2001, a nineteen-year-old black man, Timothy Dewayne Thomas, was shot and killed by a police officer in Cincinnati's inner-city neighborhood called Over-the-Rhine. The police officer, Thomas Roach, claimed that Thomas had fled from police on foot when they had approached him. In hot pursuit, Roach headed off Thomas at the end of an alley. Roach fired his weapon because, according to one version of events he later gave investigators, it appeared that Thomas was reaching into the waistband of his oversized pants. Thomas, shot once, was unarmed.

Thomas had been the fifteenth African-American male who had been killed by the Cincinnati police, and the fourth in the previous six months. As word spread the next day about Thomas's killing, many residents in Over-the-Rhine as well as black neighborhoods throughout the city were overwhelmed with grief and outrage. Spontaneously, people went into the streets, venting their hostility against the symbols of white power and property.