A little chat over late-afternoon coffee

Polyester pants, turtleneck, Bing Crosby on Sirius/XM, late afternoon cup of coffee.

Perfect time to talk.

This is going to be quiet, conversational, cool. No vigor. No vitriol.

I don't like to read about kids being killed at Christmas. Happened last year in Connecticut. Happened this year in Colorado.

Don't like to read about it anytime. I know you don't, either. Doesn't matter one's politics, does it?

So what do we do? Let's start talking. That's all. Just talk.

I own a couple of guns. One is a gift from my late grandfather. I've never fired either, although I know how.

You may own some. You may own none. Don't know. Don't care.

Herein lies the rub with wedge issues. They don't get us anywhere.

Discussion does. Not what passes for it on FOX News or MSNBC (names listed in alphabetical order), but the calm kind, chatting over coffee, just like this conversation.

Some say inanimate objects don't kill. Others ask, "Who needs weapons?"

Middle ground? Marvelous!

Why does moderation have a bad meaning? Not sure. Not with me.

Funding for mental illness treatment/prevention? Makes sense. So, too, did the assault weapons ban that was allowed to expire. Don't start yelling. We're just talking here. Leave the talking points with Matthews or O'Reilly (names listed in alphabetical order).

I know plenty of people who hunt on weekends. I know plenty who hunt happiness. They may or may not be the same person.

I hope for this purpose we hunt for common sense, common ground.

I never want to see kids killed at Christmas. It will happen again. I'm quite familiar with human nature.

Let's just start talking. Calm and cool, nice and easy.

Bing and Dinah are singing about a white Christmas. Gotta go.

Salud to you, liberals, conservatives, libertarians, Communists, moderates, militants.

And may all your Christmases be white...