We DO try to read (not watch, or listen to much, sorry) a broad spectrum of news and commentary at our house, from the Guardian and NPR to the WSJ and the National Review, and a whole lot in between.

However, whatever Mr Sunstein says, nobody, NOBODY can convince me that what the far-right has done and is doing is honest or beneficial. Talk about parsing info!!! Good god, have any of you actuall READ the National Review? I honestly think most of what passes for not just "commentary" but even "facts" in there is just jaw-droppingly stupid, if not evil at its core. And, no: I'm not over-reacting.

Absolutely, without exception, the information that these cretins would label as "liberal" (how that definition has been reduced and demonized is worth its own book) does not engage in the same vitriolic debasement that the far-right does. Sunstein just can't convince me otherwise.

As for his feeble, "Well, I don't watch him much" "defense" of O-Reilly: Take the el in any direction from that campus sometime, Mr Sunstein. The air might be a bit rich for you, but you'll get used to it.

ps: Well done, editorial intern! Keep up the good work! =)

Even the word "cretin."

It's the only way I can explain how supposedly educated, intelligent, moral people can come to many of the absolutely contradictory beliefs that they do, and put forth the kinds of cynical, purposely misleading (if not downright dishonest) and reductive arguments that they do.

Mourning your abortion while remaining pro-choice, despite the self-knowledge of the difficult choices one has to make is simply NOT equivalent to paying for your sister's or daughter's abortion WHILE VEHEMENTLY PROTESTING OTHERS' RIGHT TO DO THE SAME, AND VOTING AGAINST IT.

Even in that example, Sunstein ignores the hypocrisy and arrogance of the right.

I call, I write, I send money to Dems in any state if they do something I approve of and I make sure I tell the other Dems like Feinstein and Schumer that I've sent money to the Dems they've betrayed. I vote. I help register voters. I work getting out the vote during elections - and I've worked in swing states not my own doing same.

Seriously. What's left for me to do? I am but a mere citizen. I honestly don't know what we are to DO about this sorry state of affairs.

Well, we're in good company. Anybody read Frank Rich's column today? I hope this is fair use:

What makes the Democrats’ Mukasey cave-in so depressing is that it shows how far even exemplary sticklers for the law like Senators Feinstein and Schumer have lowered democracy’s bar...

...That Mr. Schumer is willing to employ blatant Catch-22 illogic to pretend that Mr. Mukasey’s pledge on waterboarding has any force shows what pathetic crumbs the Democrats will settle for after all these years of being beaten down. The judges and lawyers challenging General Musharraf have more fight left in them than this.

Last weekend a new Washington Post-ABC News poll found that the Democratic-controlled Congress and Mr. Bush are both roundly despised throughout the land, and that only 24 percent of Americans believe their country is on the right track. That’s almost as low as the United States’ rock-bottom approval ratings in the latest Pew surveys of Pakistan (15 percent) and Turkey (9 percent).

Wrong track is a euphemism. We are a people in clinical depression. Americans know that the ideals that once set our nation apart from the world have been vandalized, and no matter which party they belong to, they do not see a restoration anytime soon.

Some of us aren't employed to blog or comment on this stuff full-time. Some of us have to cram our actions and advocacy and financial support into lives that are otherwise fraught. Please forgive us if some of us wonder if, despite our attempt to participate in this so-called democracy, this isn't exactly how the Night of the Long Knives came to pass (our version of it might be the Long Night of the Dull Blades, but there you are).

Some of us can't be the ones who are the first to "march in the streets." But I think I can speak for some of us (perhaps many of us) when I say we'll be there in a flash if you full-timers do.

... we've already started. And the damage is profound, and we'll be paying it for years if not decades. And it's not measured in dollars.

If there was a rolling-eyes emoticon, I'd be applying it here - in spades - to captainlarab's post.

Me, I'd like to apply punitive damages to the people who caused this egregious state of affairs.

As a Cubs fan, all I can say is: Wait till next year!!

http://www.joespub.com/caltool/nicemedia/images/ThomasNico.png

http://www.joespub.com/caltool/nicemedia/audio/Nico%20Muhly%20%2D%20Clear%2Emp3

... put the house on the market or rent it out, and figure things out with your sister. Make a one-time cash payment to the neighbor if you feel like it, with the understanding that by accepting your "gift" she waives the right (or the chutzpah) to ask for anything else.

Nothing brings out the carrion-seekers like an inheritance. Like that other person said, it brings out the worst in lots of people, and in some people you'd least expect it.

Thank the neighbor for her kindness and be done with it. Make peace with your sister, then get on with your life.

Good luck.