My wife and I had dinner at restaurant Gordon Ramsay in Manhattan. It was sublime. I tried and failed to write about it in my personal food journal - it was thesaurus-busting, I just gave up after about the fourth attempt to find a new superlative to describe the food. And the service. And the decor.

Hell's Kitchen is a rotten show, but that man can cook. And run an excellent restaurant. Not that is was cheap - the kids might be going to state colleges after what we spent on one dinner, but DAMN it was good.

I am opposed to sending kids to a camp where indoctrination in a certain set of beliefs is a part of the goal of the camp. Even if I agreed with that set of beliefs, I'd be opposed to a camp that tried to impose them on my kids.

Watch the movie Jesus Camp for an example of the kind of brainwashing that can go on.

Story: My (then) 9 year old daughter wanted to go to church with her best friend after a Saturday night sleepover. She's the middle child, the sensitive one, the heart-on-the-sleeve one. And this would be the biggest fundamentalist church in town, the hellfire and brimstone, the anti-science church. The church that sends high schoolers to Vegas to save the street people for Jesus whether they like it or not.

My daughter came home from her church visit visibly upset but not wanting to talk about it. After a few days it came out, "Daddy, am I going to hell if I believe in evolution?" We talked it out, it was a learning experience for both of us, but one I'd rather not have gone through.

I guess you could argue this from the other side - it's now a topic we can handle, she's gone to church again with the same friend and I have confidence (mostly) in her ability to stand up to it. I've told her some of what I believe in more detail than I've discussed with her sisters, and I think she's better fortified than she was against brain washing, better prepared to stand up and think for herself.

But there's no way I'd send her off to be exposed to those people for a week. I really doubt she'd have the strength to stand up to a constant (even if unintentional) barrage of peer pressure and twisted beliefs. If she did go, I'd anticipate two to three times the length of the camp to calm her down, debrief her, detox her.

And, Cary, your example of French language camp is as far off the mark as I've ever seen you. They don't tell you that science is bad in French language camp. They don't tell you that speaking English is the road to hell. They don't try to convince you that only French speakers live full and satisfying lives and that if you don't try to focus your whole life on France you are risking your eternal soul.

It may be hard to protect your kids here. Church camp has already set the hook - "We're FUN!" and is prepared to make you the bad guy - "Why don't your mother and father want you to learn the ONE AND ONLY TRUTH?" The only solution I can see is massive massive communication. Tell the kids in detail why you don't want them to go and help them to be mentally strong to resist the brainwashing if you feel you have to let them go.

*all caveats apply. Yes, I am still healing the scars from my run-in with a fundamentalist church as a young adult. Fundamentalists come in all sorts of levels of toxicity, some are actually very good people who try to act consistently with their beliefs. I'm a "whatever gets you through the night" sort of person, if a personal jesus works for you, man, go with that. But don't try to force your ideas on me or my kids or we're going to have a fight. And keep your anti-science, anti-knowledge attitude out of my kids' schools.

Ahh, never mind. The point's been made. How many of us need to try to find another way

Can't...resist...

So this reporter thinks that a respectful question submitted during an open Q&A period is heckling if it isn't something the candidate wants to hear? And he thinks that such a question is successfully handled if it's deflected in a jokey manner without answering it? And that this shows the candidate's steely resolve, facing down a 16 year old girl?

Sigh.

Kinda hard not to see this as an example of the behavior of the whole MSM and the current administration (worst president ever) although it's really just one idiot reporter (so far). It'll be interesting to see if this meme gets picked up. I hope Jon Stewart has some fun with it tonite. Anyone willing to bet that the reporter gets fired? I'll put big odds that he keeps his job.