Maybe the problem is I live here in the Bay Area, and it's been All Crisis, All The Time, with howling politicians, bureaucrats, and minor Persons of Influence everywhere you look.

This story is typical, with both parties--BOTH parties--diving onto the bandwagon, and setting up the usual Star Chamber where some poor slob gets to sweat blood while the Spanish Inquisition racks up TV time and sound bites.

It's kind of amusing that you seem to know quite well who I'm talking about, even when I didn't intend it myself:

"The bizarre need to find a scapegoat for every bad thing that happens nowadays is driving the investigation now."

This is simply a commentary on something that has been a problem in our society for some time now. It's you that clicked on lawyers, and liberal ones at that. On reflection, I will concede that lawyers and "deep pockets" drive a lot of this kind of thinking, but I'll bet a lot of the lawyers are Republicans, too.

I don't know how far you can stretch this. I might have to avoid using the term "asshole" for fear of being accused of attacking Democratic politicians.

As for the politics of Eastwood and Stewart, I'm not the one who called out John Wayne's political party, using "Republican" in the same way someone else might have used "child molester." Odd that didn't get a chewing out from you in an otherwise apolitical thread.

My response was a slight counterpoint to Eri's admittedly-mostly-harmless post after posts admiring Clint Eastwood and Jimmy Stewart, and I resent the implication that I was dropping politics into the thread unprovoked.