I think of myself as a "radical moderate," since I refuse to completely espouse any ideology, and that makes me untrustworthy and disloyal in the eyes of both right and left. My mother-in-law just shakes her head and says, "Joe, you're so liberal!." She's 89, and her chief entertainment is listening to talk shows. The talk shows keep saying that liberals are evil - she doesn't know why, but she believes it.

I came unglued when she piously suggested that the Democrats should show respect for President Bush by not running against him in 2004.

Oh, well.

-Joe Offer, part of the Axis of Evil-