[NTLUG:Discuss] /etc/host unreable ... huh?

[./aal]

Thank you all for the great help.
I have applied C Browne's solution to clean up my /var:
rm the bad /var/log and recreate it
things seem better now, but not happy yet.

The newest chapter in my strange comedy of errors is...
I am getting an error in the VC I run startx from
(usually tty1 as a normal user):

"Can't open /etc/hosts for reading! (chmod a+r /etc/host to fix)"

This fills the screen. I have checked /etc/hosts and it is a+r.

now what is going on?

./aal