I've been sort of hounding my elected officials lately; sending them poll results, asking them to commit to the public option, following up on their correspondence with me to ask them to please answer my questions instead of responding with canned crap that somebody on their staff wrote.

Seriously, how hard is it to answer the question "Do you support a public option for health insurance?" Yes? No? You haven't made up your mind yet because you get a lot of money from the insurance industry and you're afraid the Republicans will use the issue to run against you in 2010?

No, seriously. I want to know why.

They get six years of free reign during which they drive the country into a ditch. Not just any ditch, either--a snow-filled ditch with a pond of thin ice at the bottom, far, far away from the nearest gas station.

Then, they start losing. So, instead of asking themselves why they are losing, they double down, and lose some more.

I should disclose at the outset that this is not a "How To" piece. If I knew how to find my joy, I'd surely have located it by now. But I've been thinking about happiness since Ross "What Women Want" Douthat declared why women are unhappy in his New York Times column last week.

Right after the election was over, I started a series of posts called Stuff I Learned, about the history of American presidents, as I read a book called The American Presidency. I didn't get very far into the book, and now I can't find it. I'm not all that worried about finishing, not being a fan of non-fiction.

So, at least for now, I won't be sharing with you the stuff I learned about American history. Instead, I'm hoping you'll share with me stuff you already know, because I'm confused.