Oh I do agree with you that Tom can be a delight to talk to in non-political discussions but there's this line that gets crossed in behavior where the relationship is no longer important to me.

I came to that with Barbara Streisand, a singer and actress I used to enjoy immensely when I was younger. Then I started hearing about what a difficult bitch she was to work with and suddenly her music and movies just weren't fun anymore.

I had a roommate once who's company I truly enjoyed. He had an interesting take on life and a quirky sense of humor. Then one day he opened up to me that he'd dabbled in heroin from time to time. That's one of those lines I draw where I know that once someone has so little respect for their bodies that they'd stick a needle of poison in their arms, they can no longer be trusted. It proved to be a valuable insight.

I don't know exactly how to define that line but I'm pretty sure Tom has crossed it with me. Whatever pleasure I can get from the man in the non-political discussions just doesn't seem worth the sinister part. I think our world is diminished when we enable such abhorrent behavior.

I'm sure Hitler was a charming man when he wasn't talking about eliminating Jews or sending armies into Poland.

Art