THE COMFORTING LIFE of an ideological fanatic.

Those whose minds are obdurate and canonical -- regardless of the philosophy they hold -- don’t need to grapple with inconvenient facts. They have a reflexive response to every set of facts that challenges their worldview: ignore the facts. This doesn’t help one ascertain the truth. But it does avoid the hard work of facing up to the false assumptions on which their intellectual structure rests.

We've seen more than a few of these -- on both sides -- during the past two weeks.