Jesse Taylor puts it well:

[H]ow many debates do we have in this country that start off under patently false pretenses? Tort reform, the estate tax, Social Security, the war in Iraq, and many more. It's not even different interpretations of the facts, different glosses on the same basic ideas. The partisan divide comes from the fact that we're having totally different debates on the same issues, to the point where we simply are talking about disparate ideas and problems.

I probably get at least one e-mail a week from somebody who's been around the blogosphere for a while and remembers a time when I seemed less partisan than I do now. And as much as I'd like to disagree with their assessment, I can't. In my own defense, though, I have to say that Jesse's point above has a lot to do with it. I'm still more than willing to compromise on most of the major issues; hell, I'd like to. But when the other side -- and this really is primarily a Republican problem these days -- won't even be honest about the basic nature of the questions under discussion, there's nothing to compromise about. It's just Blue Guitar stuff, and, while that may make for fascinating poesy, it's a puerile and damned near psychotic way to try to conduct the public's business in the world's oldest democracy.

As a great man almost (and perhaps should have) said, I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is sane.

POSTSCRIPT: As you may have noticed, I've decided that everything from Travis McGee to sitcom philosophy to, well, Wallace Stevens is fair game on Saturdays and Sundays. [What's next? Cat blogging? -- ed. Nope. Other folks have got that covered.] I hope nobody minds these brief side trips, but now that I'm blogging more during the week, I'm finding that a little change of pace is necessary (from my perspective, anyway) on the weekends.

POSTSCRIPT 2: You know, that reminds me. Have I told you about Dylan Thomas O'Toole? Why, he's the cutest little orange fur ball....

UPDATE (6/27): I was in such a rush to get out of here last night (Fahrenheit 9/11 beckoned) that this train wreck of a post made its way to the blog without so much as a spell check. Uncounted edits and revisions later, it's still not exactly what I had in mind, but I'm really tired of messing with it at this point, so I guess I'm just gonna have to quit while I'm behind.

Oh, well. They can't all be winners, can they?

RELATED: BUSH'S WAR ON THE TRUTH CONTINUES

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