“zk, I dunno, my work on predictors of future housing prices, correlation between home price increases and church attendance, quantification as to why we deserve a depression, etc. seemed pretty good, and were original work; I was impressed.”

Fair enough. Some of that stuff was pretty interesting. I was talking about politics, though. I mean, it seems to me that partisan people rarely cross the line to the other side of the aisle. Why is that? Do you disagree with the conservatives on anything? If you can come up with the above ideas, why does it seem that you can’t think on your own when it comes to politics? Why the automatic attack on anything or any person non-conservative? Why the automatic support of anything or any person conservative? Why the automatic discounting of anything that speaks poorly of the Bush administration?

For instance, Woodward’s book. He says that the Bushies, behind closed doors, regularly mocked the religious activists that they regularly claim as their base. I’m sure you can explain that away, because it can’t be true, because that would mean that bush et.al. are hypocrites. I’m sure that no matter what example I give, you’ll find some way to twist it around so that the conservatives come off seeming to be right, whether they are or not. That automatic search for any way possible to discredit the other side, regardless of whether they may be right or have a point is what bothers me so much about the extreme partisanship that defines politics today.

If you do have your own ideas, I’d like to hear some examples of where your philosopy differs from the conservatives’. Just for my own curiosity.