This Is a Time For a Loud Voice,

open speech, and fearless thinking. I rejoice that I live in such a splendidly disturbing time.
- Helen Keller

These are words we need to live and act by in a time when so much is at stake. Watching the Right trip over itself with the whole Supes thing is great; social conservatives are railing against Alberto GonzaleS (not "z" like last posts - sorry, ed.) because they believe he won't take a firm stand against abortion. Moderate GOP'ers are requesting that the extreme right tame things down as to maintain a semblance of party unity, but refreshingly, what we're seeing is that the "Right" is as splintered now as the Left. Political and social conservatives (i.e., the evangelicals versus those who ain't) are battling over the course the party needs to take. I believe, though, that if the evangelicals (who always feel painted in a corner, because in their paranoia, they feel like Jews in 1943 Warsaw) continue to push their agenda on the nation, there will be a backlash. not a church-bombing anti-Jesus putsch but a backlash in the midterms. Values, morals, blah blah only goes so far until it begins mirroring cultural fascism. Like this flag burning issue; this country doesn't have anything else to worry about (except for ballplayers shooting 'roids) than going apoplectic over a fundamental (and Constitutionally-protected) freedom of expression. When does desecration of a flag begin? Can I wear a shirt with a flag on it? What if I garden in that shirt and get the flag part dirty? Can I blow my nose on a napkin with the flag on it? Can I burn a flag once it's touched the ground and needs proper disposal? Would a five-second rule count on that? A piece of cloth symbolizing our nation and its history and I can't touch it? I can burn a cross but not a flag; how's that for worshipping false idols?