Today was not a great day, at least as far as the long drive through Wisconsin on I-39/90/94 goes. Although the trip was rife with mayhem, the most bizarre moment for me came at a stop at the Portage rest area. As I was standing outside the car, refilling my son’s milk cup, a yellow pickup truck pulled up behind our car, and the driver yelled something incomprehensible out the window. At first I ignored him, but when he persisted I looked up and dismissively acknowledged him. He still didn’t give up, and that’s when I realized that he was pointing at my Obama bumper sticker as he said “You know he’s a… Muslim, right?”

You don’t have to like Obama, and for that matter you don’t have to like Muslims. But to ignorantly regurgitate Fox News lies (simultaneously assuming “Muslim” is automatically a pejorative) just makes you look like a jackass.

About a thousand possible responses, from the rational to the incredulous to the withering (to the fact that I have already voted for one Muslim, thank you very much, and plan to again this November) ran through my head simultaneously, but given the state (mental, not geographic) I was already in, all I could muster was an enraged “PISS OFF!!!!” and furious waving of my arm. Luckily we weren’t back in Georgia, or I’m sure he’d have introduced me to his gun rack (or demanded that I squeal like a pig).

Certainly this Obama-phobe was not stopping to engage me in enlightened debate. The only possible outcome he can have been hoping for was for me to lose my shit, which I did, spectacularly. So I guess he won.