"Don't forget your pitchfork!" - a friends response when informed that I would be attending a Tea Party.        Over the past year, I have heard a lot about the Tea Party movement, much of it negative, some positive. I do, from time to time, listen to conservative talk radio.             The Tea Party bashers would have you believe that these events are akin to that very famous tea party in "Alice in Wonderland." I'm talking about the cartoon classic here, not the Tim Burton rehash.  A few irrationally fearful lunatics, totally out of touch with reality, brought together by nonsense: "Unbirthdays" in one, "America's rapid deterioration into a Marxist state" in the other.  And the Te

       The cheeseburger.  Is there anything so uniting and yet polarizing at the same time?  Everybody loves cheeseburgers.  What about the tree-hugging vegans, you ask?  They love cheeseburgers too, but the burger is made of bulgur and whey and twigs, and the cheese is made of soy, whatever that is.  The top-selling vegan product today is the veggie burger.  That's a fact.  Look it up. And when you do, let me know what you find out, because I'm using the word "fact" very loosely here.   The point is, everyone loves burgers. There you go, we're united. So if we can agree that everyone loves burgers, why are they so polarizing? Because your favorite burger probably isn't my favorite bu