It won't be Evan Bayh.

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It's slow, at least on my Macbook, but good. Text of my remarks forthcoming.

Things the Postwoman Brings

It was a good week for receiving packages.  I got my Stonewall Kitchens order--peanut butter, smooth and chunky, strawberry jam and some salad dressing.  I needed the peanut butter and jam for the most outrageously yummy peanut butter cookies--I will be making them for the Boston meet up on August 2nd, especially for Common Sense Mainer as Peanut Butter cookies are his favorite cookie.  If any of you would like to meet some dkos and Cheers and Jeers Denizens, let me know--I will get info for you.  

I also got my box o' Crocs!  I adore Crocs.  It is difficult to wear anything else after wearing Crocs.  I got a pair of the ballet flats with the backs that make them look like sling backs.  I also got strappy sandals with a 3 inch heel!  And a pair of wedge mules--I am so thrilled to be able to wear some heels again that are actually comfortable!  They have all kinds of new styles--check 'em out at Crocs.com. Especially if you have diabetes or any foot problem, go to their medical site.

Then I received a gift from a dear friend who commissioned 2 mugs for me--one for each to look like Zanzibar and Maggie!  Here they are with their mugs:

What a great idea!  I LOVE them!

It is a rainy day here--a good day to get some work done in the house.  What ate you up to?  What is the best thing the mailman/woman has left at your door step?  Any plans for the week?  Grab some cinnamon rolls and coffee, pull up a chair and sit for a bit.  Say a prayer for wren that her dog does ok with the rescue, Lassie she loves so, when they are introduced tomorrow.  And a prayer for comfort for Russell King for the loss of his incredible father. And traveling mercies for all returning from NN in Austin.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinal reports on a lawsuit against two Catholic diocese in Wisconsin:

However, the court split 3-3 on whether to let the suit proceed against the Archdiocese of Milwaukee, where church officials had begged parents not to report the teacher to police and promised he would be sent for treatment and not allowed to have contact with children. The tie affirms the decision to dismiss the case against the archdiocese.

AP reports that Jim Robinson, a former Assistant Attorney General, is on the terrorist watch list. Don't you feel safer now?

James Madison accurately describes the nature of the mob mentality in Federalist 55:

He was right.

Balko found this one. The official food of the Indiana state fair this year: deep fried bananas foster cheesecake on a stick. That's just evil, but damn it looks good. I love bananas foster and I love cheesecake. Put together and deep fried? I shudder at the thought.

Day 4 was much mellower and less eventful than day 3, mostly because we slept in until noon after the wild night before. That means we missed Al Gore's surprise appearance at the conference, but I'm not exactly broken up about that. Sleep was far more important. But when I got in to the convention center this morning, guess who was there? Bob Barr.

I got to ask Barr a question I've wanted to ask him for quite some time. He's repudiated and apologized for many of his previous positions and I asked him if he would repudiate his absurd anti-Wiccan crusade of 1999, when he wanted all Wiccans banned from the military. He said yes, with a bit of hemming and hawing.

I now have a new tradition. The second Saturday night of Indiana Black Expo, I work the door at Nicki Blaine’s Cigar and Martini bar.

I do it to get a feel for the atmosphere and to see what problems occur when thousands of teenagers are unleashed on downtown Indianapolis and what the impact would be. I was pretty harsh in my critique last year, this year was a little different.

First of all, every IMPD officer who worked the event deserves a giant raise in pay. They kept the pedestrian traffic moving, which I think went a long way to keeping the silliness down to a bear minimum. There were some arrests for curfew violation. But there were no shots fired last night to the best of my knowledge and I was out until 2 a.m. Also with the way this week has gone, IMPD exercised great restraint and managed to keep a good sense of humor about the whole evening.

The worst criminal offense I saw was a person (an adult) picked up for weapons possession. There was one incident I saw where a cop told an 11-12 year-old to keep moving and the 4′8” kid tried to get in the 6′4” officer’s face. His little friends held him back and took him away. The Officer just gave the kid that “you are not worth the paperwork of me smacking you so get somewhere!” look.

Now with that said, I do think Expo should do a seminar for teenage girls about self-respect. I saw a lot of girls wearing clothes too sizes too small. I have seen more loin cloth on Indonesian tribal garb. There is no way my 14-year old daughter would be allowed to leave the house looking like she worked in a Vietnamese brothel. But apparently, somebody did. Either that, or the kids left the house with a change of clothes. What’s even worse were how the more “full-figured” gals looked like two pounds of rump roast in a one-pound bag. I agree last night was warm, but walking around half-naked was not the right way to beat the heat.

I think Expo officially has a new mission next year. It’s to end the “clothing optional” portion of that second Saturday night.

Lookit me, Ma: I'm famous!

As more than 2,000 bloggers descended on Austin on Thursday for their third annual Netroots Nation convention, no small part of the myriad panels and discussions will be focused on religion:

The right to practice it in a hostile secular environment, and how liberal bloggers and can use the language of religion to draw God-fearing Americans to a political movement that has, for so long, been looked upon as Godless.

“Some people think that the progressive side of things doesn’t respect religion too much,” said Dan Schultz, known as “Pastor Dan” and host of “Street Prophets,” a diary on the popular national lefty blog DailyKos. “I think that’s really overstated. What I see as much more of a problem are the conservative types who say you can’t be a Christian if you don’t believe in these 15 different things, most of which come right off the GOP playbook.”

And so's Mrs Robinson and The Red Pen and Chuck Freeman, all of whom are quoted in the article.

You know, I tried to steer the reporter Karen Brooks away from that middle paragraph. I don't anyone who's looked in-depth at the place of religion in the public square in the past twenty years who's concluded that the right to practice it is under any serious threat.

As for drawing God-fearing Americans, well: they're already here. If the hippie freaks gathered at the Street Prophets caucus at Netroots Nation don't convince you, consider this: about 80% of Democrats are adherents of one religious tradition or another. That's lower than the self-described affiliations of Republicans, but it's still an overwhelming majority. So who's Godless?

But I've come to expect this lens for any article on the religious Left. It's nice to see somebody taking us seriously for a change, and nice to see some good quotes from friends.

Advantage: us.