on partisan rancor

daniel schorr thinks voters (influenced by the media) are responsible for elite polarization.

It's become commonplace to blame politicians as the class and to suggest that what is needed is a new Congress. It may be that what is really needed is a new electorate. The present Congress reflects some of the voter anger at politicians fed by news media portrayals of scandal and corruption in the government. Gridlock is produced by legislators trying to respond to the anger of their constituents. Too much partisanship, not enough progress, as Senator Bayh explaining his bye-bye to Congress.

Many Americans seem close to rejecting the whole machinery of government that Evan Bayh found wanting. What happens when the people turn their back on their government is a phenomenon that this democracy has yet to experience.

wilde in love

in honor of [in spite of] v-day, excerpts from a letter oscar wilde wrote to his lover (while serving time in prison for "gross indecency")--

My sweet rose, my delicate flower, my lily of lilies, it is perhaps in prison that I am going to test the power of love. Pleasure hides love from us, but pain reveals it in its essence. To keep you in my soul, such is the goal of this pain which men call life. ... I love you, I love you, my heart is a rose which your love has brought to bloom, my life is a desert fanned by the delicious breeze of your breath, and whose cool spring are your eyes; the imprint of your little feet makes valleys of shade for me, the odour of your hair is like myrrh, and wherever you go you exhale the perfumes of the cassia tree. Love me always, love me always. You have been the supreme, the perfect love of my life; there can be no other...

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