I generally try to avoid mixing politics with my business, soas not to alienate some folks who might otherwise want to take advantage of my services. Those who know me, however, are aware that I am occasionally prone to fits of explosive opinion. In this regard I suspect I am not unlike a lot of folks.

Recently, an e-mail found its way into my mailbox that was forwarded by a longtime friend whom I respect and admire, and whose patriotism is unquestionable to me, but whose political expressions sometimes seem to be more like knee-jerk ideological expressions than informed and well-presented opinions. Unfortunately, it trigged my own knee-jerk response, which I felt compelled to paraphrase in this blog, if for no other reason than to serve as a self reminder to tame my own big mouth.

Is it just me, or does there seem to be a lot of uninformed, bigoted political garbage making its way around the Internet that was obviously written by paranoid, delusional idiots and is getting more notice than it deserves, thanks to mindless drones who blindly forward it to everyone in their e-mail address book, and who, in turn, forward it to everyone in their address books, etc., etc? (Whew! THAT was a long sentence! I hope you were able to keep track!)

Anyway, in my humble opinion, it reflects a cancerous malady in the political system in this country today, and is largely why our government no longer seems to work for the majority of the citizenry. It is the kind of incendiary small-mindedness that totally infuriates me, whether it be from the dim-witted "conservative" camp (from which the majority of it seems to emanate) or from the equally dim-witted, so-called "liberals" (the definition of which these days seems to be anyone who doesn't kneel at the feet of Rush Limbaugh). If the parties can't get past their own ideological xenophobia, recognize that no one holds an absolute patent on what is true and right for this country and start focusing on our common condition, then we may as well turn off the lights and turn over the keys, because, brother, this experiment called the United States of America will be doomed.

Whatever happened to respect for the rights and opinions of others? Whatever happened to common sense and, most of all, compromise for the common good? I've done a little reading on the birth of our nation and the lives of our founding fathers. They were as passionately diverse in their thinking as Nancy Pelosi and Newt Gingrich, yet they somehow managed to avoid the obstructionist attitudes that pervade our current government. Through hard-fought compromise they produced solutions--often imperfect ones, and sometimes failed ones, but the interests of the nation were the priority, not individual political agendas.

Since last November’s election I've sensed some bitterness and an inferred eagerness on the part of some for the current administration to fail. All I can say is: Be careful what you wish for, because a failure of the government in these precipitous times will be a disaster for us all.