Some day, I'll learn

"No politics at work" It's a pretty simple guideline, isn't it? Perhaps someone can explain to me why I can't seem to adhere to it.

I have a cow-orker who is a dyed-in-the-wool Conservative. He lives and breathes conservatism, both large and small-C. Even worse, he's an apologist for the American government, but that's a subject for another day.

Every now and then, I forget about his leanings and get sucked into a discussion about something political. This morning, it was a wide-ranging back and forth rant about a number of things, that kept coming back to the UN. He actually defended the US practice of not paying their UN dues by claiming that they already "pay too much". It was hard to nail him down on details, because he kept jumping in other directions: the world is sending troops into the Sudan because the US is; the Janjuweed Militia in Darfur isn't being support by the Sudanese government anymore, becuase they say so; of course Iraq had weapons of mass-distraction, the US sold them to them; A US federal court judge is blocking the release of a UN Food For Oil program that implicates Kofi Annan in the mess because the UN wants it sealed; and, last but not least, he went on about some liberal media conspiracy (he lost me at that point for reasons that I'll elaborate on later).

I will give him some credit: periodically, I have been able to make a point that's suprised him and he's gone off to investigate it. That's more than most blue-bloods are willing to do. He's a good guy and I like him personally, I just can't seem to stay away from politics with him. Grrrrr.