And by the way, to add to Alias’s government lesson, it might be wise to take a look at the history of the U.S. Constitution and to realize that the writers of that document sought to provide us “Freedom FROM religion”.

Personally, I would like to see an entire campaign run without any candidate’s religious views being revealed. Let’s just see if they are good, capable people on their own accord. I don’t care what they think about God and I’m sick of hearing that “God” is the center piece of all their decision making. This is such a cop out, because any way things go, good or bad, the decision maker can always blame or praise an unseen being.

Well how about considering that “GOD” gave YOU a brain. Try using it! Don’t be led like sheep to the slaughter by the promise more religiosity in our political system. Remember, that the founders of this country were fleeing religious persecution and they didn’t found this country based on religious freedom for the tyranny of the Christian majority to rule over the non-Christian minority!

Practice TOLERANCE!

But you truly don’t understand why I’m reacting to Mrs. Palin! It is not about feminism or gender. I was no fan of Hillary Clinton, and I personally do not have a feminist agenda.

I believe you have far more complex positions on issues like abortion, DS children, etc, than your wonderfully bohemian style might indicate. My dear Sister, hate Palin all you want. I can’t imagine a you that is you worshipping her…and I don’t want to imagine a you that isn’t you. I love you just the way you are.

But clio has a point about playing into McCain’s hands (not you! The left in general, Dems!). The left has, as I’ve said, done serious damage to Obama’s campaign with its smear campaign against Palin…damage that would have been done even if all the rumours were true! If you grasp that point, you have some sense of the seismic culture shock blast that is Sarah Palin.

This is big, cher louve, darling of both my central and peripheral nervous systems (to say nothing of my lymph nodes…or is it nymph lodes?). This last week has been an almost instantaneous redefinition of the emotional and moral ground of a deep cultural divide in the US that has lasted for decades. The fear that Palin has aroused is what underlies the animus…you yourself have said as much. The culture wars have just had a turnaround moment…the kind where in the movie the music starts to change.

This is big. Almost as big as my love for you. Which is saying a lot, ’cause my love for you is bigger than…the biggest piano. Grasp that immensity and you have grasped the immensity of Sarah Palin.

With admiration for your uniqueness and hope that it shall never fade nor wither,
Patrick

Sister, when I read Americans going on like this about Sarah Palin (or a number of other matters), I find myself wondering how many of you remember that you live in a country with a “federal” political system. That is, your federal government has I believe very little influence on gun control, evolution in schoolbooks (is Sarah Palin against this, anyway), and sex education in the high schools and middle schools. Those are state concerns, surely?

Abortion is another matter: that was achieved by imposing it upon the whole country by a somewhat eccentric interpretation of the “right to privacy” in your bill of rights. If you insist that the federal government assume control over the other issues you name as well, you will lay the country wide open to much greater centrol control in a way that could very well limit your freedoms – especially if a future federal government had different ideas about the values it wanted to espouse.

The other issues you mention do involve federal powers. But the best way for the moment for the US to free itself of ‘domination” by the Saudis is to find new sources of oil in its own territory. Domination by China, such as it is, cannot easily be undone unless you know of a way to stop Americans from wanting cheap imports and (if I’ve understood the issues correctly) cheap credit. Raising tariffs against Chinese imports would likely seriously injure the US economy.

I’m not by any means a whole-hearted admirer of your Republican party, which one Catholic blogger I know refers to as the party of “salvation by Leviathan by any means necessary”. But I don’t think Mr Obama has a very clear idea of what he’s getting into, either, or that many of his promises will be extremely difficult to fulfill without injuring the very people he pledges to help – working Americans. Meanwhile, in fighting Mrs Palin as a stand-in for the whole “culture war”, you’re playing into Mr McCain’s hands.

Okay, and further investigation shows that Bristol is not pregnant with her father’s baby…But I wouldn’t be surprised.

This whole thing is disturbing, and it’s 1:18 AM, and I’m worked up. On one hand, I want to dive wholeheartedly into PAP Smear 2008, but on the other, I feel like those tactics are for the right-wing psychos. Then, on a third hand, those antics worked in 2000 and 2004 for the right-wing psychos. On one hand, I feel like Palin’s using her disabled son as an ostentatious badge of honor, but on the other, if she were keeping him in hiding, what message would that send? Then, I think all of this is a sick plan, designed to confuse the American public, play on guilt, fear, and hate. That photo of her 7 months pregnant is creepy. Why do I feel slightly guilty for hating her? The woman delights in killing moose, hates me (or prays for me–which is worse) because I’m gay, wants creationism taught in schools, gives her kids dumb names, has no foreign policy experience, has no clue what’s going on in the United States. Because the baby is cute–that’s why I feel slightly guilty. I’m over it now, though. Back to the show:

Grandpa and the Church Lady

In season two, a gay, formerly fat celebrity blogger with badly dyed hair and his own line of clothing at Hot Topic, takes a job as a manny for the Church Lady, hoping to break stories–like the one above. His charges are the Church Lady’s Down Syndrome baby and the Church Lady’s daughter’s baby. Church Lady needs a manny because she’s busy learning about foreign policy and speaking out against gays, abortion, and books with bad words in them. She has no time for little Trig. The Church Lady’s daughter needs the manny because she’s in high school, trying to graduate and move on to college. She has no time for her baby. She hopes to go to six different colleges like her mother. Wackiness ensues.

I’m sorry. I’m just so anxious about all this. I can’t even concentrate on season two of Grandpa and The Church Lady. Let’s hope (and pray) that it goes off the air really soon.