Wow. America sounds to be well nigh as religious a country as Egypt.

Yup. It's one of the things that weird Europeans out about us.

Speaking of good, Annabel has been so good lately I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop. She's just...content. She sleeps well at night. She takes naps on a semi-regular schedule. She doesn't like it if we're out of sight for long, but she's perfectly happy to play in the playpen while I sit here at the computer and work and natter for half the day. She's suddenly gone low-maintenance, and it's weird.

Susan, how old is she now?

And do you have any pictures? I want a look at her sweet baby face.

She's ten months as of Sunday. And getting so big! Earlier today she stood on her own for what had to be ten full seconds, albeit with a very wide stance and arms held out for balance.

Here's the most recent picture we have posted: [link]

I really need to take more pictures of her.

Please point me to an organization of any sort that's been around for 2,000 years -- heck, even 1,000 or 500-- that has used power and money particularly well. I certainly can't think of one.

The fact that they're an easy target doesn't make them less deserving of criticism. The fact that they've had more opportunities to do wrong by virtue of their long history doesn't excuse the fact that they took them.

But the religious right certainly doesn't speak for all christians. There are plenty of liberal christians as well. I'm disturbed by how the religous right has become the voice of christianity when it seems to concentrate so much being anti-abortion and anti-gay and ignores social and economic justice.

It's going to take the moderate Christians and moderate Republicans becoming more active & effecting change inside their party & churches.

vw, I don't know if this came up, but Barbara Kingsolver's Prodigal Summer is set in modern Appalachia. It's a marvelous book. I highly recommend it on book on tapes or CD because the author reads it, with her soft Kentucky cadences.

Sex-positive

This makes me think of film Café Flesh. "Would you like me to take a memo?"

Susan, she's so tall! And adorable.

It's going to take the moderate Christians and moderate Republicans becoming more active & effecting change inside their party & churches.

Speaking of which, I read a nice piece in the LAT's Opinion section the other day on Black churches written by one of the AME pastors. All about the history of liberal activism in the Black church and all What the Heck? about the recent push to put Black churches at the forefront of the anti-gay marriage movement. Made me want to go to church.

That really is a beautiful book, Java. Informative, too. It is no "Poisonwood Bible" but we probably wouldn't want to mess around with that thing just now. And not just Europeans...I have a hard time dealing with religion in America, too. Because I don't really have one, but I can't really say I'm an atheist. There are parts of many kinds of spirituality I appreciate very much, but I can't imagine wanting to fight somebody over any of it, and I don't belong to the church I spent my childhood going to. I sometimes wish I could commit that way. Or say it's all dreck like when I was the eighteen yo Angry Atheist(not to say that is anyone else here, just me. I was an awful atheist...made y'all look bad.)