Opening Salvo

So... I've long thought of doing a political pontification blog, but I've never really bothered to broadcast my opinions anywhere except as a blow hard down at the local pub.

The thing is, I come by my political inclinations honestly... I was raised with the understanding that I am as close a relation to George Washington as it is possible to be (a first cousin seven generations removed). After doing some of my own research, I'm not completely sure that claim is totally accurate, but I'll post more on that later. The main point is that I have been given that label (and the attendant charge) all my life. Hell, I even sang Yankee Doodle Dandy on TV when I was 6 years old. I was doomed to showbiz or poilitics from the start, so as a compromise, for a short period of time that has subsequently scarred me for life, I became a Southern Baptist preacher... a little bit showbiz, a little bit politics, a whole lot of God on my side. One of the best things about that "calling" was the fact that with GOD on my side, who could possibly be against me; not the bullies down the block, not the government, not my mother, not anyone. GOD was my ultimate authority and GOD talked to me directly. That fact that this GOD might actually be talking to other people, and that to those other people he might be saying something different than what he was saying to me, was sommething that I never even considered, let alone seriously entertained.

At this point in my life I don't believe I have any special knowledge of God's dealings with humanity, and whatever it is She might be saying, I am fully prepared to accept that the message for me is possibly, even probably different than the message for somebody else. This is one of the things (besides not being president) that makes me different from George W. Bush. When I hear from God these days, I usually notice that God has a tendency to be speaking to me through the mouths of other people. Sometimes that person is a homeless guy on Market Street, sometimes he's the Dean of a grand cathedral. Sometimes its in the words of a song. Sometimes, God speaks to me through the lips (or the email fingertip tappings) of my daughter and sometimes I hear the "still small voice" like Elijah; not in the wind, not in the earthquake, but in the quiet, when I sit down and shut up.

So... in this blog, despite it's clearly political intention, I will endeavor not to speak for God, or anyone else. I'll just try and speak for me.


Dubya says that God told him to strike Iraq.

Sometimes God speaks from strange locations... and usually to "lesser vessels" and maybe the president should be listening to one of them.