Now in the age of cynicism, our culture has come to questioning scientific progress with religious ideas. The terrifying thing is that one is quantifiable, and the other unquantifiable. It is more terrifying when the unquantifiable is becoming a part of public policy. Faith is being politicized, and taken from the realm of the personal.

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It has become important for candidates to speak about there faith. As if there faith would some how affect there ability to lead, as Mitt Romney so delectably put it: "I am an American running for president". But then he went on to appease the religious right by saying that he is no different from in actuality from other religious. He is doing a dangerous dance. On one hand he wants to prove to separate his ability to lead and legislate from his religion, but at the same time he can't separate him self from religion for fear of loosing supporters. He is fun to watch. This might come to a head when they reach the floor of the Excel Energy center during the GOP convention in ..:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />St. Paul.

This brings me to some interesting thought. I consider Atheism a form of religion, after all it is a belief in no belief, or it is a belief in no god. None the less it is still a belief. Being Christian does not a good man make; just ask some of the popes in Dante's hell. And what does this have to do with being president?

Now I wish to speak of the Republican debate tonight. I must first confess that I am more interested in the republican primaries, not because I have any investment in the candidates, but because it is more interesting. There is more political ferment, that is to say there ideas are so diverse. Ron Paul on one hand could run as a Democrat easily, except for his small (by small I mean absolutely consuming) tendency towards small government. John Huckibee is a former Baptist minister, and otherwise would be the poster boy for the religious right, but nobody knows who he is. It is fascinating watching them struggle and scratch away at each other in the attempt to catch the lead. The polar opposites that you find in philosophy

There was an alleged attempt by a few men to bomb JFK air port. The candidates, at least the hawkish ones, are at a loss to not mention it. I find the timing of this plot funny, considering that is during an election year and the fact the it was three old men and a drug dealer with an immunity deal makes it so much more suspicious. Something smells here. None of these men are younger then fifty years old. Obviously these men don't fit the profile of a serial bomber no less a terrorist.

There photos of the alleged bombers: http://www.wnbc.com/slideshow/news/13447517/detail.html

No-name Tom Tankerino, every body favorite Xenophobe has been quoted as saying Some parts of Miami (Little Havana) is like a third world country. When asked what it means to be an American, it was funny when he jumped at the opportunity to paint the immigrant community as unwilling to assimilate. I love the part where he describes a threat with in the American language, through mandated multilinguial public documents. Now I find this amusing because he is describing some existential threat to the American culture. As though, American culture isn't a patchwork of so many other cultures and languages. Most other candidates, Notably McCain and Romney are jumping to shoot him down, or cut away from him with different ideas.

Watching the CNN broadcast of the debate, I couldn't help but notice the technical difficulties due to the lightning. Most of the audio glitches happened while Giuliani was talking.