If I only had a brain

WHEN digesting politics, there are times when I feel a great affinity for the Scarecrow in the Wizard of Oz, the straw man who forlornly sings “If I Only Had A Brain” in the film. I'll explain why. National Review columnist Heather Mac Donald has written a smart, sane piece about the right's defensive reaction to charges it accommodates violent speech. She thinks they protest too much. It's worth a read. Though I mean no diss on Mac Donald, her piece contained a mystical, Oz-like passage. She wrote: "I find the charges that Obama hates America and intends to destroy it ludicrous and, yes, gratuitously inflammatory. And yet I know that many smart, sober people believe -- in sincerest good faith — that such charges are literally true." Excuse me, but how can one possibly be smart and sober with such beliefs? Like the Scarecrow, with “my head all full of stuffin'”, I simply lack the ability to comprehend such people.