Like the author of this article, my now-deceased father and still-living siblings spent/spend way too much time listening to conservative talk radio (they work together in a family business that enables radio blather in the background). The O'Reilly/Limbaugh/Ingram/Dr. Laura et al. bloviators make a connection for them just the same as fundamental Christianity works for them. Everything is so neat and cleanly laid out without the bother of actual intellectual engagement, which pretty much works for them since they are heterosexual, white, small-town people who are certifiably in the majority-mainstream of life.

Which makes it pretty hard for me, a gay guy whose career interests and need for an accepting community drove me 20 years ago to live in a city 500 miles away. So every year I trek home for two or three days of stifled obedience. No one asks me questions about me and my boyfriend, they hardly understand what I do for a living (I am a person of accomplishment and have accumulated more financial assets than they'll ever know) and they couldn't begin to hold a reasoned conversation about why I (too) oppose the death penalty, am worried about their progeny's quality of life because of our dependence on fossil fuels, and see gay marriage as an obvious means of strengthening the structure of society (not to mention the constitutional fairness issue).

Just like I deal with limited people in daily life, I must endure my family with the same stoic resolve. They are an immutable fact, not going to change and I am best off tolerating them for short durations. But the people I truly connect with, spend time with and consider to be my family are not those blood relatives. I am jealous of people who have great flesh-and-blood relations, but perhaps I've been lucky too for having an expanded sense of family – most of whom get their news from objective sources and who consider problems from different perspectives. Shockingly, these friends include a few Republicans among many independents and Democrats; none of them are fans of the conservative radio blowhards, however.

But the bottom line, expressed by the author, is clear: such absolutism espoused by O'Reilly and others drives a wedge between members of families everywhere.

Merry Christmas, Bill.

I have the pleasure of being around a handful of twenty-something people at my gym who are voting for the first time. They are not yet aligned with either political party, but are forming their first serious political thoughts in this election. What one of them said to me after the veep debates yesterday was that Palin's answers were hard to decipher, but Biden was understandable. For that reason, Biden came across as the straight talker – and they are leaning Obama-Biden as a result. The "you betchas" and "doggonit" comments may be cute, but aren't attracting votes.