Jonathon then says it's a sin
But he don't think twice cause to him
Religion don't mean a thing
It's just another way to be right wing
-- Spoon, Jonathon Fisk

Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ) announced on Thursday that he will boycott Pope Francis' address to Congress since the pontiff may discuss climate change during the speech.

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"More troubling is the fact that this climate change talk has adopted all of the socialist talking points, wrapped false science and ideology into 'climate justice' and is being presented to guilt people into leftist policies. If the Pope stuck to standard Christian theology, I would be the first in line," Gosar said. "But when the Pope chooses to act and talk like a leftist politician, then he can expect to be treated like one."

"If the Pope wants to devote his life to fighting climate change then he can do so in his personal time. But to promote questionable science as Catholic dogma is ridiculous," Gosar continued.

Gosar indicated that he would change his mind about the boycott if the pope signals that he will not discuss climate change in his address to Congress.

Let's listen to Sonic Youth ... with David Sanborn, The Indigo Girls and Daniel Lanois!

You're welcome.

It's almost beach time again.

I wonder... Someday, when computers have replaced all our jobs, will there be computers whose job it is to send emails, then sit and wait forever while those emails go unanswered? If not, then no computer can claim to have replaced my job.

We went to a Jerry Seinfeld show last night. About halfway through, some guy shouted "Hey Jerry, don't you know what day it is?" It was Sept, 11th, of course - our national day of wallowing.

Jerry said "Yeah... so? I'm a comedian, my job is to make people feel better."

The guy started whinging about how Jerry wasn't commemorating the day properly, and that 3000 had died, and that it was this and that, and Seinfeld should be ashamed of himself for not taking the time to bring everybody down, and that he was sick in the head, etc..

Seinfeld handled it very well - didn't let the guy get to him, visibly, and didn't get too nasty. But he kept control. And the majority of the crowd wasn't having any of the guy's nonsense, either.

Sadly, as my Facebook feed suggests, there are still a lot of of people who would take the heckler's side in this.

Seinfeld was very funny, nonetheless.

Click to find out!

Let's listen to Gene Ammons!

We played this album during the reception dinner at our wedding. 19 years ago, Monday.

This is real.

You can buy this at the Ted Cruz Store.

Not that there's anything wrong with that!

I sometimes think we've gotten ourselves into a pointless argument in this country, as we rather often do, by exaggerating the extremes.

We are not faced with a choice between imposing some Christian version of Sharia law on the one hand, or "driving religion out of the public square" altogether on the other.

Two hundred years of not terribly rigid separation of church and state has given us one precious gift. As a quote attributed to James Madison (never been able to find the correct citation on it) put it, "The purpose of separation of church and state is to keep forever from these shores the ceaseless strife that has soaked the soil of Europe with blood for centuries." Religious strife is still soaking the soil with blood, isn't it, in Kosovo and elsewhere.

To the extent that politics should be based on moral and ethical considerations, of course it has religious foundations. But dragging God into partisan politics is, in my view, a sin.

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Again, this may be a matter of taste, but I have seen too many Psalm-singing, Bible quoting, Holy Joe hypocrites in politics to think these frauds improve the moral tone of our public life. Getting snookered by some canting humbug is even more depressing than getting snookered by a plain old crook.

Beware those who make a show or a parade of their piety: Keep watching for the ones who walk the walk.

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