Powder kegs.

Editor,

More than one close friend or relative of mine has been transformed in front of my own eyes over the years from a calm and generally agreeable personality into a wild-eyed, angry, volatile political powder keg after tuning in right-wing talk radio on his or her way back and forth to work day after day just to have something to listen to in the car.

The constant drumbeat of inflammatory rhetoric to the effect that the listener desperately needs to "take this country back" from the Stalinist Nazis (now there is an oxymoron for you) who have taken it over evokes fear and anger, particularly in people who haven't read books, don't know anything about history, and have never been involved in politics.

Re: "In the wake of tragedy, an outspoken sheriff steps into the spotlight" (1/9/2011)