There’s a riff about cops that I may have read in a Joseph Wambaugh book. It goes something like “poets, priests and politicians talk about what people might be, could be, should be, try to be. Cops deal with people as they are.” (If it’s not from Wambaugh, fine…whatever.) In this sense I feel a kinship with the law. No offense to 98% of HE talkbackers, but dealing with the talkback uglies really does affect your view of humanity to some degree. I’ve had the talkback thing going for almost four years now (it began in March ’06), and dealing with dozens of Mr. Hyde types, year in and year out, starts to affect your emotional makeup after a while.