WHICH PARTY I BE? I used to think of myself as a Democrat. Then, for a few weeks or so, I flirted with the idea I was a Republican. Some friends patiently asked me to lay out my platform, to recount my stances on the issues of the day. "You're nothing," they told me. "What you are does not exist as an overarching ideology."

My first reaction was to feel lonely, like the only straight guy at a Cher concert. But I'm starting to realize my party-less state is, perhaps, quite common. John Stewart, in an inexplicable and brief AP story observes:

"Liberals and conservatives are two gangs who have intimidated rational, normal thinking beings into not having a voice on television or in the culture," said Stewart, whose show airs on Comedy Central. "Liberals and conservatives are paradigms that mean nothing to anyone other than the media."

So maybe that's my party: The Rational Normal Thinking Beings Party.