MATT SLOCUM / Associated Press
No strangers to passion, Eagles fans cheer for their heroes as they leave the field after a preseason victory over the Jaguars.
Morning Bytes
The latest blood sport: Health care
Recently, I was watching televised scenes from outside and inside one of those health-care forums that are giving me a headache and democracy a bad name.
Frankly, it reminded me of an Eagles-Jets game.
There were passionate - some would argue compulsively obsessed - people on both sides.
Many of them looked as if they had just left a Star Wars set, a comic-book convention, or therapy.
Their emotions had been inflamed by talk radio and their favorite partisan Web sites.
They screamed.
They disparaged.
They shouted clichéd slogans.
They spouted misinformation.
They carried signs that were crudely lettered and crudely reasoned.
They waved banners.
They had organized chants.
They were surrounded by security personnel.
They gladly bought into bizarre conspiracy theories.
They wouldn't listen to reason or each other.
They wore uniforms displaying their loyalties.
They had traveled there in caravans and buses.
They hammed it up for the TV cameras.
Their behavior got worse as the event progressed.
They wanted blood, not comity.
