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Tag Archive for "Mormons"

This Blog Is For Obama

I’ve been an undecided voter for a long time.  In recent weeks I’ve come to the conclusion that McCain is not suited for the presidency.  For one thing, McCain’s biography exhibits all the immoral qualities that the GOP loved to hate about Bill Clinton.  In some ways, on a moral scale, McCain may actually be worse.  Besides being a philanderer, he neglected and abandoned his first wife at her moment of greatest need, dropping her for a new wealthy trophy wife.

McCain’s campaign choices and decisions demonstrate that he is hasty and foolish in the processes he follows to make consequential choices (ex: how he picked his VP candidate).

At one point in the nomination process, his campaign almost ran out of money and conceded that it had spent its money unwisely.  And now he says he is the person to fix our economy?  Maybe he should try running a solvent campaign first.

McCain has a reputation for a terrible temper, someone who lashes out viciously at whoever has provoked him to anger.

McCain also has a history of incompetence.  When he was in the military, he crashed three planes.  He basically left the military and went into politics because he knew he had reached a dead end in his military career.  So why should we now promote him to be our Commander-in-Chief?

I recognize that Obama is very liberal and that he scares conservatives who think about who he would choose for the Supreme Court - but he is a man who has actual leadership qualities: intellect, poise, stability, vision.  In the nomination race, he came out of seemingly nowhere and defeated a very intelligent, hard-working, ambitious opponent who should have been a shoe-in for the Democratic party candidacy.  His defeat of Hillary Clinton, in my book, was a huge political achievement.  Obama has also shown that he knows how to raise money and manage his campaign finances and how to properly motivate volunteers and deploy them.

I think Obama can be a good president, maybe even a great president.

McCain is a disaster yesterday and today.  “Tomorrow” he could easily become a disaster to our country.

Also, on a personal note, I’m still angry at the GOP for how it treated the Mormon candidate during the Republican candidate nomination process.  McCain and Huckabee tag-teamed on Romney to prevent him from succeeding and at times they took advantage of anti-Mormon bigotry that exists in some sectors of the country.   Traditionally, a majority of Mormons who are U.S. citizens have been conservative and Republican.  In my opinion that is a mistake.  The affection has not been reciprocated.  While the GOP is willing to accept the Mormon vote, the party has not demonstrated that it is willing to pick a capable LDS person to be its candidate for president or vice president.  Quite the opposite.

For these and other reasons, now is as good a time as ever for Mormons to become independent and free from party affiliations.

Mormons Are Everywhere

Diane and I are now in Rome, Italy.

This evening we went to Galleria Borghese to see some Bernini statues and Caravaggio paintings.  At this museum we were standing in line to check in our coats and a bag, and I yawned (feeling a bit tired from the all-night flight).  A lady behind me said “You can’t yawn in Italy!” and then laughed.  We started talking and after just a few sentences of conversation I started to wonder if this couple we were talking to were Mormons.  I can’t even say for sure what was giving them away … it just seemed like a good possibility.  Then the lady said she had been doing some work on some of her “family lines” while she was here in Italy.  At that point I became about 99% sure and asked where they were from.  “Utah” the husband responded.  Sure enough, we were chatting it up with a couple of Mormons from Utah.

A Black Mormon Doctor In the House

I’ve been a fan of the television show “House” pretty much since it began. I’ve enjoyed the way Hugh Laurie plays the acerbic Dr. House. He’s extremely intelligent, extremely rude and is in a position of some authority - consequently, he’s a personality type that doesn’t seem to ever get boring.

The season begins with Dr. House taking a classroom full of doctors applying for the opportunity to work with him. True to form, Dr. House puts running bibs with numbers on them and refers to these applicants by their numbers instead of by their names. In one of the first scenes he assigns a bunch of them to wash his car, including a young doctor character named Dr. Jeffrey Cole or “#18.” The character is played by Edi Gathegi.

Edi Gathegi

As the last episode unfolded, Dr. House notices that #18 has a class ring from Brigham Young University and asks him directly if he is a Mormon. He is. The patient they are working with is having some serious health problems and there is a realization that they need to stress the patient’s liver to see how it is functioning. To achieve this, Dr. House naturally decides that the patient and his doctors should drink tequila and of course he feels that the Mormon doctor will have to participate. In a short conversation Dr. House does manage to persuade this Mormon doctor that this approach to things might save the patient’s life - and thus the Mormon agrees to drink along with them. As they are downing shots, Dr. House then says “so tell me about the magic underwear.”

All of this is very consistent with what Dr. House is all about, so it didn’t actually bother me all that much. It’s offensive, but that’s the point. If you’ve watched the show enough, you’ll know what I mean.

If I can find a YouTube clip with the primary scene of interest, I’ll post it. So far no luck.

I did, however, find a partial clip of Edi Gathegi talking about his new role.