sunday thoughts: in my face

over the past several election cycles, i have grown increasingly pissed that presidential candidates--for that matter, candidates for any office--spend sunday mornings, wife and television crew in tow,

climbing the stairs to this magnificent church or that.

it seems that no person is qualified to represent the american public if they themselves don't publicly represent--in some form or other--god.

well, of course, i think that's total bullshit.

god didn't score that touchdown, didn't hit that homer,

didn't pedal that bike up the mountain,

or beat the living bejesus out of the boxer in the other corner.

you might think that your god helped you, or gave you the inner strength or determination to do whatever it is you just did,

but i sure as hell don't care, nor do i want to hear about it.

are you so insecure about your relationship with your god that you simply must tell everyone what your actions mean?

i do adhere to the old-fashioned notion that actions do, ultimately, speak louder than words, and that the actions of a good, noble, and honorable person speak volumes about the true character of the actor.

slap a little cross on you somewhere--no problem.

drop on your knees silently, briefly, off-camera--that's cool.

but begin every post-accomplishment camera mug session

with an "all praise to god"

and you've just gone all talladega.

so, imagine, if you will, my emotional tossed salad upon learning that candidate everyman, fred thompson, has startled the political and religious [redundant?] worlds by declaring that "...he isn't a regular churchgoer and doesn't plan to speak about his religion on the stump."

well, i'll be damned!

he added that he gained his values from "sitting around the kitchen table'' with his parents and "the good Church of Christ.''
thompson said his church attendance "varies.''
"i attend church when i'm in tennessee. i'm in mclean right now,'' he said referring to the virginia suburb of washington, d.c., where he lives.

"i don't attend regularly when i'm up there.''
thompson said he usually attends church when visiting his mother in tennessee and isn't a member of any church in the washington area.

what the hell kind of chance does this guy think he has?

talking nonsense like this, if it catches on, could toss the republican party some 40, 50 years forward in evolution, up to practically the 1980s.

she-it. that's just stupid talk;

that's the devil coming down from the mountain.