So, I have a several point disclaimer before I post this photograph. I am a pretty opinionated guy when it comes to politics; Alison and I talk quite a bit about news stories etc. Everyone is entitled to their own rational opinion, however, and we rarely align perfectly in our policitical beliefs and because it can be such a passionate subject and can cause conflict I will, for the most part, keep the opinions I consider rational to myself.

I will say, however, that there appears to be a lack of reasoned discourse on politics at the moment. I think talk radio had a lot to do with that; it is really powerful to take language that the opposing side applies to itself and turn it into a dirty word, "liberals" "neo-cons" "elites" are examples that come to mind. I think using this as a strategy is effective in the 1984 newspeak sense; one can limit thought and discourse to the strawman that is linked to the word. So Michael Dukakis => liberal => bad, Hillary Clinton => liberal and liberal => bad, therefore Hillary => bad. So we can find the worst example attached to a broad political category and get the general public to associate the worst with the rest, all without much thought on anyone's part.

This is probably an overly personal view into how my mind works, because that whole long- winded worldview critique is just helping me resolve the guilt from posting this (now quite hypocritical) photo to our blog.