SHINING LIGHT ON THE LEFT, MAKING ROOM IN THE MIDDLE: It's ironic that, in my view, the media seems to be killing the Libs of late. The more spotlight the gets shined on 'em, the worse they look.

Here's what I mean...

My friends Isaac and Bart continue reminding me that, to equate the Left with charlatans and shriekers like Michael Moore and Janeane Garofalo and the rest of their lot is unfair, like painting the Right with only the Falwell/Dobson/Robertson brush. Funny thing is, the Right folk I see on TV most often seem reasonable and well-informed -- Giuliani, this Enterprise Institute guy (Glassman), McCain, Hitchens, Sullivan. Meanwhile Maher and other Left mavens keep trotting out narcissistic nutbags like Carlin and Vonnegut and Clinton(s) and Nader and Chomsky and pretending like they're national treasures when in reality they're narcissistic nutbags. (Of course Maher is the world's biggest narcissist, so perhaps he simply enjoys the company of his peers.)

It used to be I just heard or saw these people in little bits and bursts, and their jokes and one-liners and aphorisms seemed compelling. But now, getting to see Carlin expound at length about how he "has no personal stake in theft," so he doesn't care about people stealing, to see how overwhelmingly pompous he is...

Getting to hear Vonnegut's doomsaying crap...

Hearing Nader's utopian visions spun out at length...

Sometimes I think the disputed election, 9/11, and now this hurricane have lifted a veil from the face of the Left, and what's been revealed is flat-out ugly. Vonnegut last night called humanity a virus on the surface of the earth and seemed hopeful that the planet would soon rid itself of us. Looking at his wizened, dark old face, I thought...

Well, I won't say it.

Look, life is impermanent. People are imperfect. And 39-year-old men start to lose muscle tone and gain fat pockets. These are facts. But in the face of all this, can't we decide to create a set of laws and a style of governing that reveres and affirms life, that recognizes humankind's shortcomings, and that espouses enduring values like freedom, honor, and justice? Sure we can. This is not the domain of one party or another. This is something we can all do.

In the meantime, here's hoping the planet doesn't cure itself of me any time soon. I'm a good virus, I swear. Despite the fat pockets...