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[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2VFRt5W4FM[/youtube]

Obama is running on a platform of hope and the Israeli national anthem is "The Hope" (Hatikva).  Coincidence . . . ?

Credit to my sister Amy for this one.

It's "cheating."  A bunch of church ministers want to engage in political activities.  They should have the right to do that, right?  Wrong.  The problem is their tax-exempt status.  These churches make money.  Some of the mega-churches in the bible belt make millions of dollars every year.  They have never paid a penny of taxes because the US government allows churches to be tax-exempt.  So far so good, except if you agree not to pay federal taxes, then the government has a right to put some limits on you.  Specifically, political activities cannot be tax-exempt.  The reasons for this are obvious, and very important.

If we allowed tax-exempt political campaigning, it would be a disaster.  Think of the hundreds of millions of dollars raised by political campaigns every year.  The law preventing this was passed in 1954, and for good reason.

So what are the churches really trying to do?  They're trying to cheat.  They want tax-free political campaigning.  There's a reason it's not allowed, and there's a reason why most religious leaders choose to stay politically neutral.  Of course, many of the issues of our times are informed by religion.  Abortion.  Charity.  Same-sex marriage.  Almost every religion has an opinion on these things, and the preacher has the right to preach the religious message.  But when you start endorsing candidates with tax-exempt money, you're breaking the law.

But I'm not tax-exempt, so while I'm at it, here's my two shekels worth.

Oh wait, there wasn't one.  Because he needs to go "save the nation."  Letterman may just be a funnyman--an old, slightly stodgy funnyman--but he makes three really good points:

. . . from the wedding of Aaron & Julia.  It was a beautiful wedding in Bonny Doon.  I was the official photographer and yes, I will get the pictures online as soon as possible.

It was great to see Aaron & Julia get married, it was great to see all my friends again, it was great to be out of the house after a month of mono, and it was great to be in Bonny Doon again.

Trying desperately to catch up before Aaron's wedding this weekend.  And by "catch up" I mean "go through photos from the past weekend;" I still have a year's worth of backlog. Anyway here are three new galleries from San Diego:

Random photos from the July and September trips:
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Diana's baby shower:
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Marina, Sasha, and company:
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And yes, you can order prints from my gallery.  :-)