NBC News has chosen to call the situation in Iraq a civil war as of this week. Many other news outlets are doing the same. Here’s how President Bush responded when asked that question today:

“No question it’s tough, no question about it. There’s a lot of sectarian violence taking place, fomented in my opinion because of the attacks by al Qaeda causing people to seek reprisal.”

My point here, though I did not vote for Bush in 2004 and objected to the war in Iraq prior to its onset, has nothing directly to do with which side of the aisle the president or anyone else is on. This kind of non-answer to a reporter’s question, once lauded as an effective media relations tactic, is not only hurting public discourse in our country, if you ask me, it is damaging public opinion of anyone who uses it consistently. Democrats do it just as much as Republicans, and I think it’s hurting America.

The Bush administration spent six years refusing to answer questions, even ones that it was silly to refuse to consider. Now that the balance of power has shifted in Congress, the administration is finally beginning to address its critics humbly and openly, relatively speaking, despite what Bush did or did not say today. If the administration had learned how to do that even six months ago, it might not be dealing with a loss of seats in both sides of Congress today.

I think it’s fine to have talking points to get across in any interview, but it isn’t fine to just parrot them back incessantly as if the question were never asked. It’s really a moot point by now any way because the media is so accustomed to public figures doing this. CBS went ahead and did what Bush was trying to avoid by clarifying the president’s position: “President Bush said Tuesday that the sectarian violence rocking Iraq is not civil war but part of an al Qaeda plot to use violence to goad Iraqi factions into repeatedly attacking each other.”

Just say “yes” or “no,” and then tell us why. We’ll all be a whole lot better off, if you ask me.

I saw U.S. Congressman Jim Cooper walking to his office on Church Street downtown this morning as I made my own way to work. Congressman Cooper was juggling (OK, not literally) a couple of packages while flinging the door open.

Representative Cooper wasn’t breaking any laws as far as I could tell, and he didn’t appear to be cursing about the door. I know there are 430-odd members of the House, but I just found it refreshing to see one of them lugging his lunch pail to the office just like the rest of us, so I thought I’d share.

Happy birthday, Jon Stewart! By “Jon Stewart,” I mean the host of the Daily Show, not the:

• Scottish footballer
• The secret identity of the Green Lantern
• Member of the Kingston Trio
• Financier and railway builder
• U.S. Congressman from Pennsylvania
• Canadian Member of Parliament
• Scottish Earl
• Son of James II of Scotland
• Son of James III of Scotland

What Jonathan Stuart Leibowitz (Stewart’s given name) may lack in anti-Semitism, it gains in recognizance. Still, Jon, kick back and enjoy your 44^th knowing that among Jon Stewarts, you currently have monopolized name recognition big time compared with your counterparts above. Take that, John Stewart, 2nd Earl of Buchan!

Thanks to DVR technology, I have been a pretty regular Daily Show viewer for about two years now. I love Stewart’s sense of humor because it is somehow even drier than my own. (Some of my friends, and possibly my wife, would dispute that. Water, anyone?) Here’s hoping for many more years of fake news and occasional cameos by Steve Carell.

Has sports replaced religion in our society? I think maybe it has. It’s hard to argue that point looking at the sports page in the newspaper or looking at football stadiums on weekends.

The more curious question, for me, is why. Are we looking for an escape? Are we looking for meaning? How many of us who are sports fans can honestly say that we are as invigorated on Sunday mornings as we are on Sunday afternoons? For those who aren’t sports fans, how often are you more excited about a worship service than you are about your favorite television show? How many of us care more about what takes place on a screen in our living room than what takes place across the street?

Now that survival is generally no longer a challenge for us, are we desperate to escape the malaise of our everyday lives to be a part of something larger and more exciting? Are we looking for a gift for ourselves when we already have “everything?” Are we choosing the easy way out by escaping into entertainment and comfort instead of looking to connect with the people around us and finding ways to change our worlds for the better?

I think we are, and I think it’s because it’s easier to choose that path. Most of us in the U.S. don’t have to work especially hard to eat, sleep and survive each day. The tribes and battles that would have engaged us centuries ago are gone or at least irrelevant for most of us, or they are half a world away where they are easily forgotten. For many people, questions of faith and reason are much murkier than they were for prior generations, and religion isn’t the simple answer it once was (not that it can’t still ultimately be a solution). Perhaps we are struggling to hold on to any meaning we can, even if it is as fleeting as wins and losses and jerseys and goalposts.

Don’t get me wrong. I love sports, and I don’t see that changing anytime soon. I just wonder why it can become so important, sometimes excessively important, at the expense of more important things.