in the line of 12 Presidents that have sat during my lifetime, I had the feeling that this one might actually be my President. (I deeply appreciated his acknowledgment of "non-believers" as true citizens, and don't doubt that millions felt the same way) He is the best public speaker in my memory, and I think a good part of it is that he writes a good deal of what he says...and reveals thereby not only clarity of speech, but clarity of thought (not to be confused with "moral clarity" which is not so easy to come by and more often than not reflects dogmatic certainty and self-righteous intolerance).

Speaking of which: I paid close attention to the Rev. Warren and most of his saying was relatively innocuous, but I bridled when he launched into the "Our Father", for personal reasons. I am an atheist of Jewish origin who has participated in perhaps a thousand AA meetings over the last 20 years (successfully, if I may add). Most all of them begin and/or end with the famous "Serenity Prayer" which I say with full conviction, because it reminds me of what I need to do every day to stay sober and also to be of more benefit to myself and those around me. Occasionally however, the closing is the "Lord's Prayer" which after a few years of intense discomfort I finally stopped saying. It is freighted with too much negative baggage for me, remembering what it represented to my ancestors (directly to my mother, who survived a Ukrainian pogrom in 1918, when she was five). So whether he intended it or not. Rev. Warren pushed one of my alarm buttons with his choice. (I doubt that he intended, but don't doubt that he didn't care either.)

I helped to start an agnostics AA meeting in Cambridge MA, and our closing ritual is based on Quaker practice. We join hands in a circle and maintain silence. It is very powerful. Everyone should try it once in a while.

Patriots fan here.

That year, the Pats made it through the playoffs (beating Pittsburgh BTW) mainly on defense. Who remembers that their main RB was Antowain Smith? Who remembers that Tom Brady began that season on the bench behind Drew Bledsoe, and was starting his 10th or 11th (don't hold me to this!) game in that SB.

But that game was won by coaching, and the way Belichick used psychological jiu-jitsu on the Rams coach Mike Martz. Martz was a single-minded egotist who came up in the Air-Coryell school...one I have never liked...I began my NFL days in the Browns time of Brown and Kelly. BB knew that even though Martz had a great RB (Marshall Faulk) on his side, he would most likely go mainly through the air to PROVE THAT HE COULD.

And he (Martz) did not disappoint.Thus the Patriots defensive backs, not fearing Faulk, thumped the Rams receivers as hard and as often as they could, to the point that they began to flinch in anticipation. I still recall Ricky Proehl dropping a 4th quarter pass (that he should have and normally would have) caught because a hammer (was it Ty Law?) was bearing down on him. He literally shied away from the ball to protect himself. It was also a game in which Tedy Bruschi ( still my favorite of the whole squad) as the middle LB came into his own, and of course Adam Vinatieri. (Trivia: the reason Vinatieri came from N Dakota was that his immigrant ancestor had come from Italy and settled there to be a bandmaster for....George Custer! We NE's can be grateful that when Custer went on his last march, he left the band at home.)

Brady's great days were to come...and I hope they are not over.

He is HOF anyway....but the Pats went 11-5 without him. That's coaching.

And finally: NY Jets suck.

I do.

That's why the NY Jets REALLY suck.

No wonder the Masters of the Universe f***d up so badly, if they think this guy is any sort of "librul". Ackkkkkk!

The more intelligent businessmen must know that the GOP's petulant obstructionism is their worst enemy. If people do not have jobs, they can't buy what business produce (goods or services, whatever)...the most common mistake is to forget that the producers of goods and services are also the consumers of same.

The "social conservatives" who deliver the preponderance of GOP votes are a different story, however. The evangelicals who evidently don't mind penury in this world if they can have riches in the next, the plain old-fashioned bigots (the Southern strategy was really the race-bait strategy), the dittoheads who regurgitate Rush's spewings on all these websites, have enabled the "malefactors of great wealth" (the words of a great Republican President, BTW)to pile up obscene amounts --- at the expense of millions of hard-working people --- and have no better way to spend it than on $1400 trash baskets etc.

Between the greed-maddened CEO and the narcissistic socialite and the willfully ignorant voters of Nixonland there is no natural connection...theirs is a bad marriage of convenience. It's not clear who really used whom but, for example, if abortion were really abolished a major wedge issue would disappear and with it a major tool for getting a lot of people (Joe the Plumber writ large) to vote against their own best interests. Now that McConnells and the Boehners have taken their best shot, maybe some of these self-deluded (with a lot of help of course) Joes will wake up and see that they have been had. Then it will be my pleasure to watch the GOP shot-gun mesalliance end in a nasty divorce.

and libraries too. People can be jarred out of their assumptions and may start asking questions about the status quo. And they might start thinking on their own. Can't have that!