An old friend of my husband's, who plays one of his favorite wargames, has just reappeared in town, and Hubby has said, "Sure, Connie and I would love to join you and your wife at the home of our mutual friend, the ex-wife of one of our other friends."

Then he sends me an email at work about this and I go, "Oh, crap, this is going to be horrible."

Maybe the two women have changed radically. Maybe they've both realized that quiet is not to be feared, and that it is better to not say anything than it is to giggle nervously and babble about nonsense in whispery voices. Maybe they've learned you don't have to keep your eyes down when you talk to someone with a stronger personality.

Maybe their opinions have been informed by something other than conservative male authority figures. Maybe I won't terrify them anymore. They're going to try to bond with me again, and the only thing we have in common is gender and skin color.

I don't want to be friends with them. If Hubby's friend is back in town for a while, they're going to want to get together, and and if his wife is the same as she used to be, her social world centers on him--though there are probably kids by now--and she'll accompany him, and Hubby will say, "Go keep her company."

I suppose I'd better be a grown-up and just see how the party goes. I hate being a mainstream grown-up, going to dinner parties with acquaintences, and all that.

where are we getting the idea that Obama was ever Muslim in the first place?

What, you think a good Christian American boy would have a name like Obama, that rhymes with Osama?

(such is the logic of my neighbors)

okay, this Obama thing is confusing me. I thought he was a long time member of a church in Chicago. Not that of matters but I thought the " Obama is a stealth Muslim" story was totally made up.

It is made up, Stephanie.

FWIW, here's what Wikipedia says:

A theme of Obama's 2004 Democratic National Convention keynote address, and the title of his 2006 book, The Audacity of Hope, was inspired by his pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright. In Chapter 6 of the book, titled "Faith," Obama writes that he "was not raised in a religious household." He describes his mother, raised by non-religious parents, as detached from religion, yet "in many ways the most spiritually awakened person that I have ever known." He describes his Kenyan father as "raised a Muslim," but a "confirmed atheist" by the time his parents met, and his Indonesian stepfather as "a man who saw religion as not particularly useful." The chapter details how Obama, in his twenties, while working with local churches as a community organizer, came to understand "the power of the African American religious tradition to spur social change":

It was because of these newfound understandings—that religious commitment did not require me to suspend critical thinking, disengage from the battle for economic and social justice, or otherwise retreat from the world that I knew and loved—that I was finally able to walk down the aisle of Trinity United Church of Christ one day and be baptized.

It sounds like, if he has ever been even remotely Muslim, it's only (eta: because his father was, though not by the time Obama was born) in the same way that someone whose mother is Jewish is also Jewish (which may not apply to Islam at all; I'm utterly ass-ignorant about that).

It is made up, Stephanie.

By idiots, possibly whose names rhyme with Bush Bumbaugh and his ilk.

so, what was meant upthread about him "converting"? I guess that's what threw me. I have uncles who believe that stealth muslimcrap and it drives me nuts.

I believe it is against the laws of Islam for a faithful Muslim to change religions.

I think the converting stuff (it's come up a few times in this thread I think) is just evidence of how effectively the crazies have muddied the waters, you know?

well, and in my case, total sleep deprivation for the last month.