Actually, I think the American Civil War is widely acknowledged as the exception to the rule about victors writing history. Shelby Foote might agree with me. Well, except he's dead.

Not that it has anything at all to do with this thread, but I'd be interested in your source on this. I can't find anything at all about it in my quick googling.

This was my thought, too. First I thought the environment and climate change, but then I thought the gardening and good food and supporting small, local farm angle was more happy and bi-partisan :tongue_smilie:

is what rumor?

To clarify--I didn't mean to suggest I had heard (or CBS reported) that she'd never make a public appearance again (or, specifically, not speak at the convention). They said that over the past two days she HAS canceled all her public events and that she has not answered questions from the press since the announcement aside from the People interview.

That's what CBS was reporting today. As far as I know, the only time she's been made available to the press since the VP announcement was her interview with People magazine. If anyone has news to the contrary, I'm happy to be corrected.

barring an all out conspiracy on the part of the Division of Elections in Alaska, her husband was a member of the party. The McCain camp acknowledges that she attended their 2000 convention. That is involvement. It may not be, to you, problematic involvement, but it is involvement and it's entirely fair game for journalists to ask her about it. Only they CAN'T ask her about it, because the McCain campaign has canceled all her public appearances.

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/09/todd_palin_was_registered_memb.php Her husband was certainly a member. I'm not really sure the McCain camp is going to pick up on the "secession isn't such a bad idea!" response that some are espousing here ;)

You might want to look at Memoria Press' Christian Studies: http://www.memoriapress.com/descriptions/ChristianStudies.html

ooh...I need this--thanks!

Well, there was an (apparently very inept) assassination plot against Obama by a small group of white supremacists, so, yeah, there was some ill will directed at Democrats by fringe groups, too.

I have 5 and 7 year old boys. They (either together or taking turns): clean the playroom most evenings feed the dogs let the chickens out and collect eggs get the mail vacuum the upstairs once a week clean their bathroom once a week clean their room once a week help unload the dishwasher dust and clean windows

better late than never. mine's up!

you didn't have to imagine it; she DID say it. Whether Bristol said the same sort of thing or not we don't really know. It's certainly possible she did.

He shouldn't need to use his VP pick to energize his base; he should have been able to do it himself. And the base isn't enough this year: http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2008/07/a_new_electorate_in_the_making.html I do think Palin is probably the best choice he could have made (or at least I did; the more I hear about her, the less I think this). But I also think he never would have chosen her if he didn't feel like he HAD to do something dramatic to shore up conservative support.

I actually think the "woman" thing is a bit of a decoy. I think McCain, et. al. want everyone to focus on that to distract them from the real point of the pick--which was to shore up support among social conservatives. Of course, the thing is, the fact that McCain needed to use his VP pick to do this says a great deal about his weakness as a candidate. The Republican should really have the social conservative vote all tied up by himself.

yeah' date=' I'm not really following along all that closely. I'm kinda sleepy. Is the blog on the official church site? If not, if it's a private blog, then it's not something [i']I[/i] would be comfortable with my pastor posting, but, yeah, that's just me. Incidentally, Mike Huckabee spoke during the morning service at a big church near me the Sunday before Super Tuesday. so apparently I'm totally out of the loop on this stuff anyway, because I have no idea how that's not considered campaigning.

Well, SNL doesn't have tax exempt status.

We've been twice in September--the first time it rained only once during our week long trip, the second time it rained a lot, but rarely for very long. The rain is usually in the afternoon and short lived.

got it--thanks!

But isn't there a great deal of overlap? Certainly the Bible has a lot to say about poverty, and poverty is a political issue. Certainly it has, as in Jessica's example, plenty to say about war and about being peacemakers--these are also political issues.

Sojourners magazine makes a bumper sticker that says that. I keep meaning to get one! I would be very uncomfortable with a pastor who specifically avoided talking about any issues that have political ramifications. I think there are countless issues that Christians are called to grapple with that also happen to be issues politicians deal with and make decisions about. I have been in churches (as a child) where preachers have made sermons on political issues in election years and made it very clear that they were doing so in order to tell you who to vote for. And that, IMO (and in the law's opinion), crosses a line.

It will be very hot and humid. September is usually high 80's/low 90's. Afternoon storms are common. You probably won't need any cool weather stuff at all (maybe a jacket just in case), but definitely be prepared for rain (you can buy emergency ponchos super cheap at wal-mart or wherever...or the ponchos they have there are actually some of the most reasonably priced things they sell--something like $7 each).

My DS is younger, but I have in the past backed off for short time periods when we've gotten to the point where he's getting really frustrated. We don't just stop doing math, though; we do a lot of games and that sort of thing instead, working on the concept he needs help with before moving on.