Yesterday, Zoe (she's seven) asked who would be fighting in the war at the end of the world.

Pam said, "Probably Arabs and Israelis."

"Which ones are the good guys?" Zoe asked.

After a moment of reflection, I said, "I suspect there'll be good guys on both sides."

"Okay," she said. "But who should we vote for?"

Now, I'm all for a bit of childhood indoctrination, but to ask a seven-year-old to take sides against anybody feels wrong, as my strongest desire as a parent is to help my kids hold on to their innocence as long as they can without endangering themselves. So, I sighed relief when she said, "If Texas was one of the teams, we would vote for them, wouldn't we?"

"Well," I said, "Who would the other team be?"

"Los Angeles. So we should vote for Los Angeles, right?"

How I love that girl.