Yes, I'm in a mixed relationship.  It has been 18 years now, starting with romance and developing into so much more.  Inevitably, it is fraught with complications.  There are differences in so many things.  There are the explosions, when those differences are too great to bridge; there are the make-ups, when differences are, sometimes only briefly, forgotten.  In these past few years we have likely all had this kind of relationship. We are a conservative Republican (me) and a liberal progressive. To keep this relationship alive is an active effort in which we both must engage, and we've been doing it for years, successfully.  The overall relationship is worth the effort, yet shortly may be subject to the greatest test of all: the Presidential Election circa 2012.  I am confident that our relationship will endure, but only because we survived the last one, and that is due to the actions that I myself did or did not take.  So without further ado,...(Read Full Post)