A company hosts a press conference to show how caring and compassionate it is. The CEO of the company, dressed in a top-of-the-line suit, stands in front of the television cameras with his arms around a homeless man who has not bathed for several days. This, we are supposed to believe, makes the company’s CEO a good person. 

A political leader is exposed for deceitful behavior. The day after the exposure, he and his wife volunteer in a soup kitchen. We’re supposed to believe that he is still a good person, despite the wrongdoing he more or less acknowledged.

In a recent debate, candidate for President Ron Paul claimed we should practice the "Golden Rule" in the Middle East. If we treat people like we want to be treated, Paul claims, then we'll be treated the same way in return.

How can a man as intelligent as Ron Paul appears to be, when it comes to economics, be so profoundly wrong -- so absurd, in his position, that one is almost brought to laughter?

My answer: religion. Religion is the toxic element of conservatism.

Obama has announced that he will deny a permit for the Keystone XL pipeline, a project that unions and GOP lawmakers alike said would be a boon for job creation as well as energy security.

Nearly fifty percent of Americans, in most polls, claim that they think Obama is doing an acceptable job as President. One wonders if these same people mind that gas prices will continue to rise, and American dependence on foreign oil will continue to grow. They probably do. But increasingly, it's becoming too much to expect most Americans to make basic cause-and-effect connections.