As a blue Weimaraner, I’m a great at pointing and fetching…but not very good at dodging buckshot… (you’ll get mail.)

At least you’re not Dick Cheney…yelp yelp.

As for old James K. Polk, he got a lotta bad press for a century or so because the Civil War victors write the history (as with any war)…Polk was a slaveowner who wanted to extend the Southern states westward (Congressman Lincoln voted against the Mexican War). But, like Lincoln, Polk was a big impact player in history. His Manifest Destiny policy gave us California, Texas, AZ, NM from Mexico and the entire Northwest from the British. More recent historians have placed Polk in the top 10 of “successful” presidents because he served one term and accomplished virtually every goal he set.

Thus, your Polk quote in masthead is right on and should embarrass Bush every time he goes to Crawford for a six-week vacation. My Polk antecedents are the northern branch (Indiana not Tennessee)and fought on the Union side. Granddaddy Sgt. Horace Polk’s pic hangs on my office wall in Columbus. (Now there’s a hunting clue.)

I better stop here before you disqualify me as troll. Keep on writing like you talk.

About Polk – I remember learning about him when I was a kid and developed an affinity (hmm, I wonder if it was more about the teacher?). A couple of folks have commented that Polk’s “success” with Manifest Destiny was not the kind of success people should brag about. I can understand that, too. All a matter of perspective I guess.

We just have to keep on pushing on, however it is that we think is the right way.

Just saw your post… it’s all my work in that section today, and my header. A snarky header too, and about OH politics overall, not just the blogs, and not even the blogs primarily. Between Brown-Hackett and Fingerhut-ODP, it’s been a tulmutuous week or so in Ohio politics, no?

I wrote him back that tumultuous is an understatement.

So, in answer to your second question first, Beutler seems to be saying that it’s the Ohio politics, not even necessarily the blogs, that are dysfunctional. Now THAT I can see. If anything, IMHO, blogs are therapeutic for everyone – it’s like group therapy with several million people. (And what did I once comment about re: what Cleveland needs several weeks back on BFD?? GROUP THERAPY!)

Re: your first question, DSM stands for the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders – it’s the bible for mental health professionals and let’s you figure out how sick you, er, I mean, your patients are. Mental health professionals experience what MDs do too – where you think you have everything in the book, especially when you’re learning about it.

Here’s a link to an explanation that also provides access to specific diagnostic criteria, you know, if you want to see what mental health disorders you or your friends have:

http://allpsych.com/disorders/dsm.html

See anything familiar?

One—what’s DSM?

Two—do you think he’s implying that it’s bloggers that are making it dysfunctional, or that other state are as dysfunctional but we’ve got more bloggers covering it, so it appears to be more dysfunctional?