Monday chunks

Let's start out with politics on the fly.  Item #1, I saw this weekend that Betty White is coming out in support of Obama.  White says in this year's election, she likes what Obama has done and "how he represents us."  Yeah, Betty, but you're not one of those 90-year-olds wondering whether they will be able to get their treatment or get a couple of Tylenols and your favorite last rites minister on speeddial.  I will suspend for now my speculation as to what Obama has done FOR her that is so much better than what he's done TO us.

Second item, the Journal-Gazette ran an article on Sunday by Errin Haines of the AP which basically talked about the fact that black Churches, usually overwhelmingly against gay marriage, are letting it go in the name of re-electing "one of their own". 

Like many black Americans, Dorsey Jackson does not believe in gay marriage, but he wasn’t disillusioned when Barack Obama became the first president to support it. The windows of his suburban Philadelphia barbershop still display an “Obama 2012” placard and another that reads “We’ve Got His Back.”
If Obama needs to endorse same-sex marriage to be re-elected, said Jackson, so be it: “Look, man – by any means necessary.”
Black voters and especially black churches have long opposed gay marriage. But the 40-year-old barber and other African-Americans interviewed in politically key states say their support for Obama remains unshaken.


On Tuesday,  (Leon) Givens voted in favor of banning gay marriage in North Carolina. Many black precincts voted 2-1 for the ballot measure, which passed easily.
The next day, Givens heard Obama tell the nation in a TV interview: “I think same-sex couples should be able to get married.”
But this fall, Givens plans to register Obama voters and drive senior citizens to the polls. A retired human resources manager, he suspects the president’s pronouncement was “more a political thing than his true feelings.” But he’s not dwelling on it.
“We can agree to disagree on gay marriage,” Givens said, “and then I leave him alone.”

Now, I'm not comparing anyone to Hitler here, but it's this kind of voting mentality that put Uncle Adolf in power despite never winning more than 35% of the vote.  And it's a lot like the Catholics in the US of A voting Democratic year after year and then panicing when Obama suddenly "disenfranchised" them.  If you don't carry your convictions from the pew to the voting booth, you are by definition a hypocrite.  I didn't vote for John McCain because he was white, and I wouldn't have shied away from voting for a qualified African-American candidate such as Colin Powell, Herman Cain, Clarence Thomas, or Condi Rice, all of whom I think are far more honest, more intelligent, and more qualified that the teleprompter-weaned media creation who occupies the Oval Office now.

And since I brought up the subject of same-sex marriage, here is where I stand now, as taken from a comment I left on another blog:

I'm of two minds on this subject. On the one hand, I don't believe that you have to hold a religious belief to believe marriage should be between a man and a woman. Simple biology should be a good clue. On the other hand, as I've said before, as Christians, we cannot expect the tares to follow the same rules as the wheat.

A lot of things are injected into the election debate in the name of "determining the character of the candidate" that really have no place. I also find it funny that Obama never found the courage to make his statement till he saw how Joe Biden's trial balloon floated. Crap like that might fool the rubes, but I know a snake when I smell him. If the world would have caved in on Joe Biden, Obama's statement wouldn't have seen light of day till November.

As for Romney and Obama's religion, I agree that they should have little bearing. I know of many Mormons who are good people. And Obama's church isn't the only one I'd walk straight out of.

But what are we to do? Christians put up religious signs and such on piblic land thinking they're evangelizing when they really are just picking a fight, and FFR comes marching in with their ringers whether anyone wants them around or not. If we elected a dog, there'd be an all out fight over an anti-cat amendment to the constitution.

Next up, I got the latest of the Great Postcard Campaign postcards, this one courtesy of The Adventures of Cinderita  from somewhere in the wilds of Canada (If she wanted you to know where, she'd tell you!).  A lovely view of Long Beach on Vancouver Island, thereby increasing my longing to get back up to Pokagon!

Finally, speaking of wonderful women, Laurie's birthday gift that I told you about last night was a new, more powerful, digital camera!!  Hopefully we'll be sharing some better looking pics with y'all soon.

Time to go a-grazing now.  Have a lovely tomorrow...