Well, I am going to answer my own question on this one. I started editing the /var/lib/dpkg/status file and just saw crazy things. Instead of "Package:" I would see "Rackage:". Instead of "Status: purge ok not-installed". I would see "Status: purge oj not installed:. And in some places I would just see nonsensical charterers. Then I started seeing SIGTERM notifications coming across the screen.
So, it looks like I had a bad or going bad RAM chip. I replace that copied my /var/lib/dpkg/status-old file over to status and re-ran aptitude with out any problems. Looks like I am OJ now. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org