Get off my plane

Wow, two blogs in two days...must be the cold!

Last night the gang all went to Whistle Binkies for CP's birthday party. There were about 8 of us there, and we ended up doing two "Das Boot"s, the 1-gallon boot-shaped glass that was filled with Grain Belt. Fun to take pictures of everyone trying to drink out of this thing...CP ended up drinking most of it, but we all took our turns! Ended up back at Chris's and watched the Family Guy Star Wars episode, so funny.

Up early for church this morning, as my handbell choir was playing. Since I had to be there for both services I went to the adult forum, where they have different topics every week so adults have something to do between services besides drink coffee and eat donuts. Today's topic was on the First Amendment and Civil Religion, a topic I find interesting. In addition to having a speaker, there were several articles printed/copied about different issues surrounding religion in politics and government, and two were very relevant to this election year. One was a transcript of JFK's speech back in 1960 about the fact that he was Catholic, and his belief that a person's religious beliefs or lack thereof should not be a direct influence on any elected government official, and that a person should not win or lose an election because of their personal religious beliefs. It is impossible for any person to be completely unbiased or uninfluenced by the things in their life, but he was saying that the office of the President should be accountable to every citizen, every group in this country equally. The second article was a speech made by Mitt Romney last year about this same topic. Now I will probably never be a Mitt Romney fan as I don't agree much with his political stances, but I also don't think he should be disqualified or penalized as a candidate for office simply because he is a Mormon. The speaker of the adult forum was pointing out how dangerous it is to have a government that is a theocracy - it's easy to look at history and even current governments and see how badly theocracies end up. The Crusades were one of the most horrific examples of a theocracy gone bad, and the recent government in Afghanistan, the Taliban, was another example of how bad that kind of government can get. It was an interesting presentation.

Reading/watching

I guess this isn't "reading" but have been listening to a podcast called "Coffee Break Spanish", kind of an easy learn-spanish thing, which has been fun (and easy to fit in).

Besides the great Family Guy Star Wars episode, this morning I saw "Air Force One" on in HD, and recorded it while I was at church, watched the rest when I got back - the scene where the F-15s are fighting off the Migs and the one pilot flies in front of the missle that's about to hit Air Force One...that scene just gets me every time! Don't know how much of the AFC and NFC championship games I'll watch today but I'm sure I'll hit them for awhile.

Stay Warm!