Tuesday 21 February 2012

President Obama sings Sweet Home Chicago! In front of a camera! In a TV studio!


Well it looks like a TV studio. Apparently its the White House where a 'clearly reluctant' President sings.

Meanwhile, who knew the Hufington Post has a collection of Obama's most religious statements! That's like Letterman's Top 10, only even more likely to be boring this week.

Anyway, the earliest they could dig up implies it was the communitarian side of the religion which got Barack O's God-trance going:

From the National Prayer Breakfast on Feb. 6, 2009
"I was not raised in a particularly religious household. I had a father who was born a Muslim but became an atheist, grandparents who were non-practicing Methodists and Baptists, and a mother who was skeptical of organized religion, even as she was the kindest, most spiritual person I've ever known. She was the one who taught me as a child to love, and to understand, and to do unto others as I would want done.
"I didn't become a Christian until many years later, when I moved to the South Side of Chicago after college. It happened not because of indoctrination or a sudden revelation, but because I spent month after month working with church folks who simply wanted to help neighbors who were down on their luck no matter what they looked like, or where they came from, or who they prayed to. It was on those streets, in those neighborhoods, that I first heard God's spirit beckon me. It was there that I felt called to a higher purpose -- His purpose."
Of course this must be Obama's most famous religious statement.
As he tries to explain, what he was trying to do is defend McCain from accusations he insinuated Obama is a Muslim. But maybe Obama's faith encompasses a general Abrahamic perspective, revealed by the slip?

Fishing for approval

For years now I very much enjoy reading freewillastrology.com, horoscopes by Rob Breszny which, when he's on form, really delight with their unexpected angles and metaphors. His paragraph for Pisces this week uses a figure bound to make a reappearance on this blog: John McCain.
Pisces (February 19-March 20)
Verticle Oracle cardGawker.com notes that American politician John McCain tends to repeat himself -- a lot. Researchers discovered that he has told the same joke at least 27 times in five years. (And it's such a feeble joke, it's not worth re-telling.) In the coming week, Pisces, pease please please avoid any behavior that resembles this repetitive, habit-bound laziness. You simply cannot afford to be imitating who you used to be and what you used to do. As much as possible, reinvent yourself from scratch -- and have maximum fun doing it.
Wondering what the joke is? It's not worth much. According to the gawker post in question, the joke invariably runs that as Congress' approval rating falls so low, "we're down to paid staffers and blood relatives."
Something about this must appeal to McCain. Check the NY Mag list of each quote. I guess it shows us who McCain thinks can be relied upon in adversity: the remunerated and the blood line - volunteers and in-law relatives never get included in the joke.


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