The headline on the news release was irresistible: The government, it said, wants to tell motel owners whether to use fitted sheets or flat sheets.

There it was again, this time in the Los Angeles Times: The assertion that the gridlock in Washington is caused by the intransigence of the two major political parties.

All things considered, Barbara Ojena would rather be enjoying the summer in her old Nipomo digs instead of riding out August in the triple-digit desert heat of Palm Springs, where she is staying with her daughter.

I’ve been trying to remember the way Rod Serling started off all those old “Twilight Zone” episodes. As I recall, he faced the camera and said, in a clipped, carefully modulated voice, “Presented, for your consideration, the story of … ”

Public discourse has become scabrous since the rise of the Internet and talk radio and television. Partisans routinely sling insults at one another, and invective hangs over too many discussions like a miasma.

That was quite the dust-up at the government center last week between health care exec Ron Castle on the one hand and county Supervisor Bruce Gibson and his trusty supervisor sidekick Adam Hill on the other.

Here’s a question: Are you bigoted?

During his long career, Milt Batson has seen a lot of hurting fellow vets, going back to the Vietnam War. These days, he is seeing them pour into the county from conflicts in Afghanistan, Iraq and other Middle East hot spots.

Barack Obama waggled his birth certificate in our faces 10 days ago to prove he is a United States citizen. Then, just to underline the point, he sent troops to kill Osama bin Laden last Sunday, bagging a trophy that had eluded George W. “Bring It On” Bush for more than seven years.

A lot of older, sadder and wiser people said a bunch of thoughtful things last week at Arroyo Grande’s community forum against hate and bias. But the remark that lodged in my mind, and heartened me, came from a high school kid.