Saturday afternoon at 5 p.m. Eastern Time, www.firedoglake.com is hosting a book salon, with me as the moderator. I thought I’d mention it here because while the site is a left-wing news source, editor Beverly Wright invites folks from the other side to join in.

The book under discussion is entitled The Death of Why?: The Decline of Questioning and the Future of Democracy, which blames, as the Publisher’s Weekly review states, the “decline in the habit of asking big questions for a grab bag of shortcomings in education and public rhetoric.” Some questions and comments from conservatives might make for a lively exchange. It’s likely that the Bush administration will come up frequently, and one of the author’s points is that it is always necessary to have other perspectives in the room.