Via Ace at The Pryhills, I found an excellent column by David Brooks, who finds optimism alive and well -- and living right in the middle of the "Culture War." It should be read in its entirety, but I can't resist sharing these excerpts:

it's becoming clear that we are seeing the denouement of one of the longest and increasingly boring plays on Broadway, the culture war.

....today's young people appear not to have taken a side in this war; they've just left it behind. For them, the personal is not political. Sex isn't a battleground in a clash of moralities.

They seem happy with the frankness of the left and the wholesomeness of the right. You may not like the growing influence of religion in public life, but the lives of young people have improved. You may not like the growing acceptance of homosexuality, but as it has happened heterosexual families have grown healthier.

Just lie back and enjoy the optimism.

Occasional optimism is not necessarily bad.

Are people ignoring the Culture War?

(Maybe I should come up with a new blog slogan like "ignore it and it will go away!")

Or how about something like this:

The above is the Capitoline Wolf. And anyone who thinks it's just another boring old statue should bear in mind that its public display once generated considerable controversy -- of the sort reserved today for Ten Commandments displays.

(For what it's worth, I've always been against throwing the baby out with the bathwater.)