Dear Blues Brother: I suppose I've suffered less political ostracism than most. On a professional level, I don't flash a very big light, and I write about politics only about half the time. And I'm too old to care. But being old makes me care a great deal about personal animus. You can point to the big public melters-down, like Maureen Dowd, but they don't interest me much. What matters are stories like the ones on this Free Republic thread , "Lost an Old Friend Today. Politics and the Personal." Thanksgiving has just passed, Christmas is coming up, and I...