A bumpersticker noted on the way home this afternoon:

"A**hole: not just a word, a lifestyle" (and yeah, the word was in all its spelled-out glory).

Now, granted, I know not whether the driver was referring to himself, or to how he felt about others around him, so I'm going to assume he was referring to himself. Two thoughts there:

1. Is that something you really want to be advertising to the world? I've said before that if I were a traffic cop and I saw a young woman driving in a car with a prominent sticker declaring her to be a "Princess," I would probably be somewhat tempted to pull her over just to bust her chops - because I tend to feel anyone who un-ironically declares herself a "Princess" should be taken down a peg. I think someone who could be assumed to be self-describing as an a-hole would probably be a magnet for the Highway Patrol men.

2. This is why I don't have bumper stickers or wear t-shirts with things other than flowers or big portraits of Wallace and Gromit on them - I prefer my philosophy of life to remain a bit mysterious (not to mention, I'd like to think my various philosophies are sufficiently complex that they couldn't be summarized on a 4"x8" piece of vinyl. Oh, even if they AREN'T I'd like to believe that.)

Not to mention which, I don't like inviting debate when I'm out in public, and politically themed t-shirts seem to beg to do that. I have a t-shirt declaring "Prairies are our rain forests" which is about as political as I get, and I once ran into someone - at a cookout to celebrate a colleague's birthday no less - who wanted to argue it with me and would not let it drop even when it was clear I wasn't interested in rising to the bait.

And it would really be a drag to, say, be trying to find the best carton of strawberries at the wal-mart and have someone trying to argue your t-shirt slogan with you.