"A conclusion is the part where you got tired of thinking."
I am not sure who said that first, but I have always liked the quote attributed to Gracie Allen:
Never put a period where God has put a comma.
It seems that so many of us do that these days, whatever our opinions may be on the God issue. Some conservatives think as far as "cutting taxes is good" and believe that they are through. They do not go on to consider what to do about things that can only be financed with tax revenue, things like Homeland Security, to name one thing that is on the chopping block at the same time that terrorist threats to American shopping malls are in the headlines.
Progressives can be bad about this, too. We think as far as "every young person deserves the opportunity for a publicly-funded higher education" without always figuring out where the money to pay for that will be found.
And the whole issue of where discrimination begins and freedom of conscience ends seems to consist of people on both sides thinking up to a point and stopping. No one has suggested a good solution to that problem yet, but all I hear are people repeating the same "conclusions" they have already expressed before. The conversation is going in circles, not forward. We think our current conclusion is the final destination, when it may be just an oasis along the way. Good for a moment to catch one's breath, but not the end of the journey.
All too often, oasis is another word for mirage.
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