That's My Excuse. What's Yours?

I now finally understand, after all too many years of blissful ignorance, that it's not my fault when I get mad at the dumb driver who cuts me off on the freeway. It was never my fault when I flared up at my kids when they were acting up. It's not my bad temper. It's Intermittant Explosive Disorder.

I received my enlightenment on this delicate subject this very morning, Bush, while watching NBC's (now Katie-less!) Today Show out of the corner of an eye as I was getting ready, later than usual, to face the day. What we used to call a "bad temper" is in fact the result of a chemical brain imbalance, for which I am no more responsible than the wolf with his appetite for lambs: it's simple brain chemistry. I'm relieved to know this, because I have often been unjustly chided by my wife for an occasional, eminently forgivable lapse of language on the freeway; and I have certainly been subject to the pangs of guilt at times when I have overstepped the bounds of paternal benevolence with my children. When they were children. Alas, now no longer.

Now, I do hate to sound like a libertarian, or worse. You likely know by now that I'm no right-wing talk-show conservative. And yet... and yet... I do have pause to wonder sometimes, Bush, where personal responsibility has gone. I have ample reason to believe in the potential ravages of wacky brain chemistry, since I have watched them at first hand. But it does seem to me at times that once we have a name for everything, we have an excuse for everything.

With all this in mind, I've taken to wondering whether our national affliction might not be written off to a collective chemical imbalance in the brain and, if so, what name might be given to it? That is, if we're averse to calling it plain, short-sighted me-firstism, or willful stupidity. The Beyond-the-End-of-the-Nose Eye Failure Disorder? The Protect-Your-Wallet-at-Any-Cost Disorder? The Better-Believe-Whatever-I-Tell-You Disorder? The Morality-Is-a-Virtue-(for-Others) Disorder? Whatever it is, it's certainly not our fault.

Anyway, if you have any suggestions, Bush, I trust you'll let me know.

(By the way, a reminder: I leave tomorrow morning for YearlyKos, that liberal bloggers' convention in Las Vegas. Hope to make some new contacts for our blog and maybe sell a few books. Who knows? Not sure, then, that I'll have time for entries in the next few days. Check in, though. I may have some words about the event, and it should be interesting...)