shake that cat

If it strikes out like a duck

I start to poke around what Kevin Drum calls "the great progressive religion debate," and the first link I follow is to Patrick Nielsen Hayden's comment:

“Really, I just think people ought to be more or less decent to one another, or failing that, entertaining about it. I am by temperament a promoter of coalitions and alliances, and in that persona I wince when I see potential allies grinding their heels into one another’s toes.”

Unfortunately, at that point I notice the following Commonplace in the righthand column, immediately adjacent to the above quote in my browser (but otherwise, as far as I can tell, unrelated):

“People never lie so much as after a hunt, during a war, or before an election.” (Otto von Bismarck)

And I get completely distracted from the topic at hand. “Dude, Cheney's three for three.”

Of course, that may be why it's in the column, but hey, I'm easily amused.