A Sliver of Silver - Lining, That Is...

Most of my pals are in DC (sigh), but couple of things popped up that I might have missed had I joined them.

One is from a life-long, and self described brain-dead liberal: Why I Am No Longer a 'Brain-Dead Liberal'.

I took the liberal view for many decades, but I believe I have changed my mind.

As a child of the '60s, I accepted as an article of faith that government is corrupt, that business is exploitative, and that people are generally good at heart.

These cherished precepts had, over the years, become ingrained as increasingly impracticable prejudices. Why do I say impracticable? Because although I still held these beliefs, I no longer applied them in my life. How do I know? My wife informed me. We were riding along and listening to NPR. I felt my facial muscles tightening, and the words beginning to form in my mind: Shut the fuck up. "?" she prompted. And her terse, elegant summation, as always, awakened me to a deeper truth: I had been listening to NPR and reading various organs of national opinion for years, wonder and rage contending for pride of place. Further: I found I had been—rather charmingly, I thought—referring to myself for years as "a brain-dead liberal," and to NPR as "National Palestinian Radio."

It's a wonderful read. Not that I claim any responsibility; he discusses the arguments many of us have trying to make to our liberal counterparts for years.

Then there's this study via Hot Air.

The actual study is available as a PDF file and mostly Greek to me. Still it's worth the read if only because it represents an acknowledgment of a causal relationship we all know (knew) existed but was never before dealt with by academia.

I'd still rather be in DC, but, ever the optimist; I drive on.