Event: Happy Birthday, John McCain.

What is on its way?

And will we be ready if it arrives?

Event: California Republicans.

Last week, Tom, my godfather, posted a very interesting analysis of the dilemma facing California Republicans. While California is admittedly atypical, I still think that many of his observations could be extended to the nation at large:

The Republican party is imploding under the "breastplate of righteousness" it has donned at the behest of social conservatives, but because social conservatives dominate the Republican party and aren't going to give up control, I don't see an easy path out of the dilemma.

Event: Dot Dot Dot.

Image from mosesfreeman.

---

To Rome said Nero: "If to smoke you turn
I shall not cease to fiddle while you burn."
To Nero Rome replied: "Pray do your worst,
'Tis my excuse that you were fiddling first."

- Orm Pludge

Event: And Speaking of Katrina...

... if you need to just swim in it for awhile,

here's a nice piece from Daily Kos with links and articles.

The Flint Journal's take.

The New York Times' take.

Colin and Nora live in the Big Easy.

EVENT: In which Representative Sali shows himself to know very little about the founders of our country, whom he purports to respect.

Unfortunately, my source is the American Family News.

"We have not only a Hindu prayer being offered in the Senate, we have a Muslim member of the House of Representatives now, Keith Ellison from Minnesota. Those are changes -- and they are not what was envisioned by the Founding Fathers," asserts Sali.

Well this is spectacular. For the 900th time one of our Representatives is talking about the Founders' intentions without having bothered to learn who they were or what they believed. Such luminaries as John Adams and Benjamen Franklin were both Unitarians and surely would have scoffed at the idea that earthly prosperity is somehow meted out in a straightfoward Salian way. Thirteen signers were Freemasons, an organization which is open to both Hindus and Muslims and many other faiths, and has heavily incoporated Islamic tradition and cosmology since its conception. Even the Chrisian majority of the Founding Fathers had a practical and flexible vision of their faith which corresponded with a growing democracy. Conservatives are right to assert that the country was more predominantly Christian at its inception than it is now; they are historically wrong in thinking that the era's Christianity was as rigid and unyielding as their own "faith."

According to Congressman Sali, the only way the U.S. can continue to survive is under that protective hand of God. He states when a Hindu prayer is offered, "that's a different god" and that it "creates problems for the longevity of this country."

The most appropriate question is whether the Founders themselves would have felt comfortable in Sali's congress.

If you like, you can write and ask him yourself.