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Soon, perhaps sooner than we imagine, we will be entering the twilight zone between leaving the primary season behind and jumping into the general election speculation period (who's on the VP short lists, who's ahead in tracking polls and how many lame and insulting gun jokes will Republicans like Mike Huckabee unleash on the nation) in which reason usually goes out the window. As a public service, in my daily link Walter Shapiro in Salon offers a helpful reminder to keep things in perspective. (Of course the same publication the day before offered a handy and detailed electoral college map of the battleground states. Do forgive us; speaking collectively, I admit we can't help ourselves because, well, you can't help yourself either.)

Shameless promotion
In my Sunday Out in a Limb column (Portsmouth Herald and seacoastonline.com), I venture into the wilderness of what our election and civil rhetoric is all about and return safely. My guide is Howard Fineman, the Newsweek columnist and MSNBC analyst, and his book "The Thirteen American Arguments." The book is historically informative, currently relevant and a great read as well -- and it touches upon one of our greatest strengths (and our greatest weaknesses) as a country. We argue a lot because it's in our historical DNA and we have important things to fuss about -- so, as Fineman told me, we might as well make a virtue out of it.