My son, as you know, is mildly autistic. One of his longest lasting super-interests has been politics. He talks about it, argues about it, makes the exasperated noises usually uttered by older, more jaded people.

I came home from the store today, and Darling Son came rushing to the garage, looking guilty, like he’d been doing something he shouldn’t have. As we came into the house, I heard the television — he had thank you notes to write and wasn’t allowed the privilege of anything beyond pen and paper until they were done.

As I entered the the family room I came upon this

Not some R-rated movie with bombs and body parts. No zombies or undead. Just my kid and C-SPAN — although you could argue that many of the participants in government activities lack human qualities, and often the proceedings are less than edifying and aren’t examples of civil behavior.

I know I should breathe a sigh of relief that my kid delves into the politics section of MSNBC‘s website, reads Wikipedia entries related to current politicians, and logs onto BBC.com before doing anything in the morning. He could be searching for internet porn or trying to find someone to supply him with alcohol. But I still wish he’d write his thank you notes first.