History will one day record the long, sad decline of political rhetoric from Cicero's speeches to bumper-sticker and demonstration-sign slogans.

The Left isn't alone in reducing thought to bite-size chunks, but it's particularly prone to it. You get the feeling there are a certain number of word zingers that are virtually interchangeable, like that novelty where you put magnetic words on your refrigerator and rearrange them in any pattern your whim suggests.

Would anybody at the rally have noticed or remarked on it if the signs said, "Keep your war out of my vagina," "God is not pro-life," "The religious right is savage rape," "Keep your president off my body," etc., etc.?

Odd. I thought the complaint about the religious right was that they were religious, not that they were not.

Can't the signmakers toe the party line? Such inefficiency, comrades!

2 quick comments re: those "normal" people and their worldviews -

- I'm sitting on a park bench and a man and women, each with their dogs, approach each other. He pleasantly smiles (apparently expecting "doggy" chitchat, etc.), she archly inquires "is it a male?". He hesitates but finally understands that she's asking about his dog and says "...yes". She looks over to me and, in a theatrical aside, says "oh, we're very impressed". Meanwhile, not hip to what's going on, his dog starts to invite her dog to play. Her dog has what looks like a petite-mal seizure. She defiantly avers "she doesn't play". The man (and his dog) look confused. She then proudly delivers her full manifesto. "She doesn't play - she interprets all assertiveness as aggression." My question is, what did she do to help her dog get through these issues?

- a woman swipes her MetroCard at the subway turnstile but it doesn't scan properly so the display helpfully responds "reswipe card at this turnstile". She's dithering and starts to go to the next turnstile, so I say "reswipe the card where you are so you don't get charged for 2 fares." She looks at me like I soiled her karma. I then more fully explain "if you move to a different turnstile, the old reading will stay, and the new one will be read and you'll be charged for 2 fares." She answers in a wounded, quavering voice "I'm just trying to understand what you're saying to me." It's important for some people to constantly state how un-technological they are (in touch with Lilith, et. al.)

Oh, these people probably have political opinions, too.