"We don't talk politics here."

"We are too high-minded for that."

As a young man making contact with the world of strangers, I would often hear from people at first acquaintance the following statement "We (or I) never talk religion or politics," or something like that.  Even without their adamancy the statement surprised me.  Two of the most interesting and important areas of our life and we can't talk about it.
Such seems to be the attitude of some blogs that I enjoy visiting and reading.  These blogs are usually of the literary kind, a place where books and poetry and writing and authors are discussed, analyzed, praised and damned.  Most of the time I find their posts enjoyable, and often I am enlightened by their original views.
Occasionally, however, a post will begin with a lament on a writer who, on a particular occasion, fell from grace by writing about a public matter that addressed the uses of killing people in order to protect us all from evil.  This issue, along with a disparate variety of other issues, is generally dumped into a refuse bin called "Politics."  Noses turn up at the offensive odor from this bin.  People look at their hands and inside their minds to see if anything got soiled.
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