The people who cried "wolf"

...or something.

It's rare that I ever agree with Geraldo Rivera on something, but he made a comment along the lines of "The NAACP is wanting to call the Tea Parties racist. Well, when you use that term, you are spending credibility, so you better be sure what you're spending it on." Or something like that.

I don't know. I think we need a form of Godwin's Law for the "racist" card; all too often people or groups seem to use it to try to censure something they disagree with, figuring that the label is such a dirty and sticky one that it will immediately make the thing they are labeling suspect.

I don't know. I realize that name-calling and such is a long term part of American politics, but I get very tired of it. And some days when I watch what passes for "discourse," I find myself wondering if we are headed for another civil war. (And I don't mean a "cold" civil war. I think one is already going on. I mean a "hot" civil war, with shooting and people getting killed and families being rent apart across political lines).

Also: the whole voter-intimidation thing coming up again. If someone were to try to intimidate me out of voting, I'd go vote anyway. I know large men with paramilitary clothing can be very threatening, but I bet if they even raised a hand to someone, either the cops would be out, or there'd be enough citizens willing to defend the attacked voter. But I will say it's chilling to think that there's a group that feels it's their right and duty to try to scare away people from the polls.

I don't know. My life, the little one-inch frame I live in, is pretty good and pretty stable, but what's going on out in the wider world scares the hell out of me a lot of days.