In June of 2006, I finished reading Tim Russert's book 
"<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1401359655/sr=8-1/qid=1149489458/ref=sr_1_1/102-8263180-9517763?%5Fencoding=UTF8">Big Russ & Me</a>".
It's not the sort of thing I usually read, but I did find it it generally
interesting and at times even thought provoking.  I wrote these thoughts down
then, but never got around to posting them until now.

Russert used a particularly striking phrase when he described what he 
learned from his long association with Daniel Patrick Moynihan... 
"to respect true intelligence, ask good questions, and disagree agreeably."

I don't think I've ever heard the words "disagree agreeably" put together 
like that, but I instantly knew what he meant.  It seems to me that the 
world would be a more pleasant and productive place all around if more of us
would commit to disagreeing agreeably, instead of tending towards assuming
the worst, over-reacting, and flaming each other when working through
contentious issues.


[[!tag tags/books]]