TOLERATION: Last night on C-Span, a Democratic pollster pointed out that Bill Bennett's book, the Book of Virtues, if I remember the title right, did not have a chapter on toleration, and that no Democrat writing a similar book would ever forget to include toleration among the cardinal virtues of modern American life. I am all for toleration; I am always reminded of the founding father of the Czech state, Tomas Masaryk, and his injunction that it is not necessary for all of us to love each other, only that we not kill each other, for civil society to go on. Toleration does not require that we accept anyone or anything, only that we not harm people in pursuit of whatever it is we want. So toleration is, as the woman said, something that all Democrats can agree on. What I always find curious, though, is that the political left in this country is all for toleration when I agree with them, but not the other way around. There is something more than a little odd about a toleration that only works one way or a diversity of opinion that always agrees with one side of the debate. I suppose I could bring this point up somewhere on a more liberal blog, but I wouldn't want people to think I'm an intolerant sort.