But we are spared

Nominated by our Midwest bureau as quote of the week:

Op-Ed Columnist - The Terrible Election Race Race - NYTimes.com

Which state is having the most appalling campaign season?

Wow, so much competition.

Indeed. Click the link. 

But we, here in the pleasant valley, are spared; we have no Senator to be elected, only a safe and invisibly colorless representative and the usual copious assortment of local officials (New England, in the puritanical tradition, is woefully overgoverned) and, oh yeah, a governor, but the hinterlands - the valley - is not where that particular battle is being fought. So all, as usual, is peaceful here.

Too, we (that would be the imperial, editorial "we," there) are currently reading a book called Last Call by Daniel Okrent, documenting the history of prohibition and the infliction of the 18th amendment to the U.S. Constitution on its besotted citizens (and the consequences thereof) which offers conclusive evidence we were just as screwed up 100 years ago as we are today, and vice versa, for better or for worse. 

And, by the way, further, that "progressives" had some real brawn back then. Take, for example, one Carry Nation (Carry was her real name, but Carrie worked too). Okrent writes:

"Carry Amelia Moore Gloyd Nation was six feet tall, with the biceps of a stevedore, the face of a prison warden, and the persistence of a toothache."

Try to imagine somebody saying anything like that about Harry Reid.

But it is an entertaining season, nonetheless.