Yeah, Andrew Sullivan said yesterday on his blog that the one Republican he wanted to hear from on the issue was Mitt Romney.

My Persecution is More Relevant Than Your Persecution.

I love Passover because the Haggadah we use puts heavy emphasis on empathy for those suffering. "As long as there is slavery, none are free". And the pouring out of wine for the plagues, and God smacking down the angels during the Red Sea thing by saying "My creatures are perishing, and you rejoice?"

The point is not the Oppression Olympics. The point is opening up, not closing down. The point is not the suffering, but one's response.

My condolences to you and Wallybee and her family-of-of-choice, bt.

My second cousin is actually a big-deal theology prof at BYU, Connie.(And my mother's Perfect "Why can't you be more like...Cousin.) we...don't talk. But I do know something about that. Also, he visited us when I was a kid and apparently found Gentile ketchup fascinating...a theological schism I didn't know about...maybe Heinz sounds too ethnic? Seriously, if you're Christian, and Lutherans are cross-cultural for you, you officially do not get out enough. Especially Easter Sunday Lutherans like we were.

Also, he visited us when I was a kid and apparently found Gentile ketchup fascinating

Huh - is HFCS on the list of Mormon Don'ts along with caffiene and alcohol?

Not that I know of...but I think he spent so little time with non-Mormons that we were a little anthropology, in general. He did watch us eat...I just mentioned ketchup cause Neil Simon says K's are funny.

I don't know where he gets off on being weird about ketchup, I think it's considered its own food group in Utah.

also, the Word of Wisdom, ie, the source of the food and drink rules, is obeyed more in theory. Very few restaurants have caffeine-free options for soft drinks, and no one's complaining. I am not the only one who declares you'll take my diet Coke from my cold dead fingers. And pointing out the chocolate contains caffeine makes them very twitchy and quick to point out, "Well, the Word of Wisdom is actually referring to alcohol and hot drinks."

I've spent most of the morning and afternoon so far putting together a kitchen cart. It's almost done now -- I need to assemble one more drawer, then put on the top. I think I might take a nap first. This thing is going to be very cool when it's done, but it's taking forever.

Cousin Brent's a strange dude...his answering machine message is longer than my resume. But it might be because he is so used to undergrads following him around going "Of course, Dr. T. Whatever you think." more than even our considerable philosophic differences.

While 9/11 affected all Americans and was a terrible blow to the victims' families, I fail to see how it gives everyone in the country, in particular the families, jurisdiction over lower Manhattan. I'd guess that the first response from many businesses in the area, still blighted by 9/11, was the equivalent of "Maybe the dinner crowd will pick up."

What really is driving me around the bend is the huge emphasis on this, particularly as an example of how Obama and the "elite" don't care about the feelings of the "real" Americans, as a way to undermine Obama and reform. The country is going to hell on a souped-up handcart, and all this does is delay or prevent any real solutions. It's like hundreds of people are drowning and the people on shore are arguing about what color to paint the rescue boat.

I also wonder why I'm not a real American. I first noticed this phenomenon when Pat Buchanan identified real Americans as heterosexual couples with 2.5 children during the '92 GOP convention. My ancestors were among the earliest settlers in Massachusetts and fought in every American war from the French and Indian War through WWII. One great-grandfather bought the cattle coming into Abilene on the Chisholm trail and one was an Irish railroad man.