I've got to hand it to Garrison Keillor, he typically nails it, and in a fashion that leaves a person smiling, even though they may be seething inside.  This essay is no exception.  My loathing for the GOP has regularly tied my stomach in knots.  I'm not so sure this is keeping me forever young, however...LOL!  (Which is prefferable to being a snarrling, crotchety old conservative any day of the week!)  :) 

Miracle drug of anger
Raging against Republican hypocrisy is the tonic that keeps us old liberals forever young.
By Garrison Keillor

Oct. 04, 2006 | October is a month for intellectual clarity. Try to keep that in mind. Cold is a stimulant, heat a depressant. The chilly month of October is when the Reformation began. Our guys in Germany were walking around enjoying the fall colors and the beer and the madchens and they thought, "Hey, why am I paying money to the church to scoot me into heaven? Nuts to that." A big step for mankind, and it led to public education, the free press and rationalism, which led to the telephone, the Internet and aviation, which was what took me to Missoula, Mont., last week.

<snip>

Twice in my life I have lived in rural paradises like Montana and I learned that contentment only goes so far and what I thrive on is irritation and dread. You need the city for that...... 

<snip> 

.....Pick up a newspaper and read about Congress and you will find yourself yelling at walls and terrifying the cat. Last week, Congress moved to suspend habeas corpus, one thing that distinguishes a civil society from a police state. Reaction was muted.

Then the Party of Family Values was revealed to have protected a sexual predator in its midst until finally a reporter asked some pointed questions and the honorable gentleman resigned and ran off to recovery camp: This level of hypocrisy takes a person's breath away. You thought that Abramoff, Norquist, Reed & DeLay had established new lows, but the elevator is still descending.

The power of righteous vexation is what keeps so many old Democrats hanging on in nursing homes long past the time they should have kicked off. Ancient crones from FDR's time are still walking the halls, kept alive by anger at what has been done to our country. Old conservationists, feminists, grizzled veterans of the civil rights era fight off melanoma, emphysema, Montezuma, thanks to the miracle drug of anger. Slackers and cynics abound, not to mention nihilists in golf pants and utter idiots. Time to clean some clocks. As Frost might have written, "The woods are lovely, dark and thick. But I have many butts to kick and some to poke and just one stick."  
 
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Which inspires me to post this stanza from the old Bob Dylan classic, "Forever Young". 

May you grow up to be righteous
May you grow up to be true
May you always know the truth
And see the lights surrounding you
May you always be courageous
Stand upright and be true
May you stay
Forever young.....