Wait, what’s that lump in my back?  Should I call the doctor?  Let me feel around back there . . . There seems to be a long, ridged boney protrusion in the middle of my back, rising from my hips, up the length of my torso, into
my brain.  Could it be a spine?

Oh yes, I remember now.  I am a vertebrate.  I have a backbone.

I used to be well aware of this fact until I was swept along with everyone else during the Obamanagural.  I don’t regret having done so.  Chalk it up to Aretha.  That moment, however, is over.

Reminding me of what we have to defend is Robert Ehrlich, Jr., former governor of Maryland, in a brilliant counter-take in The Washington Post on the Inaugural Address and what it portends for free speech, honest union elections and economic fairness.

Read this all inveterate vertebrates.