Randomizations:

1.) It is NOT a requirement to be a Republican in order to own a flag.

2.) I wish he could have.

3.) We went to the family farm Thursday night. My uncle was back from Africa to visit for a few days (remind me to tell you HIS story sometime — it’s quite something). We talked with my uncle, pinched the cheeks of several small adorable children, and saw this out the back window…

4.) Where’s the lapel pin? I even went to his website. Plenty of flags, but no lapel pin. Evidently it’s a mortal flaw for Senator Barack Obama to be seen without an American flag lapel pin, but Senator John McCain doesn’t need such things…

Isn’t it time to start thinking about the ISSUES rather than who wears lapel pins and what someone’s minister said?

Truthfully, if you’re going to get into that sort of mudslinging, here’s a tidbit for you… Senator McCain actively sought the support of Rev. John Hagee, a minister who called the Catholic church a “false cult system” and a “great whore.” Senator McCain said Hagee, “supports and stands for what I believe in,” and said he was “proud of his spiritual leadership.”

Turns out Rev. Hagee also believes he can read God’s mind, as in 2006 he said, “I believe that New Orleans had a level of sin that was offensive to God, and they are — were — recipients of the judgment of God for that.” Just a few days ago, McCain said, “I’m glad to have his endorsement.”

Digging a little further, it seems that Rev. Hagee was actually defrocked and is not allowed to preach in some churches. He’s been in trouble with the IRS for earning millions of dollars per year as a televangelist and not paying taxes, and, like Senator McCain, had a messy divorce. He’s consistently made anti-Catholic and anti-Jewish remarks. (He’s been criticized by the Christian Research Institute for publishing a book in which he claims that the Christian church should reject the Jewish people as Jesus never claimed to be “the Messiah of the Jews, but only the Savior of the Christian Church.”)

Meanwhile, the North Carolina Republican Party has been airing an ad showing Senator Barack Obama’s minister saying outrageous things (“not ‘God bless America,’ no, ‘God damn America'”). Senator McCain claims to be a party leader, but he can’t seem control his own people enough to get them to stop airing the ad… McCain does repudiate the ad, but is ineffective in stopping it.

Speaking of Senator Obama’s minister, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, here are a few facts for you. Rev. Wright served both in the Marine Corps and the United States Navy, graduated salutatorian from the National Naval Medical Center, treated United States President Lyndon B. Johnson after Johnson had surgery, and received three letters of commendation from the White House. Rev. Wright is not just a minister, but is a professor of divinity and holds a doctorate. The man does seem to have developed some radical views, though, leading Senator Obama to condemn the pastor’s remarks and distancing himself from the pastor’s views, though Obama does not condemn the man himself.

Anyway, the point of this whole rant is that Senator McCain’s campaign should probably quit throwing stones at Senator Obama, as those stones can quickly be turned against them. And, to me, THIS WHOLE THING IS STUPID. I want to know who’s going to support our troops by getting them out of Iraq, who’s going to go after al-Queada, who’s going to get our economy moving again, who’s going to make solar and wind power affordable… Those are the things I want to know! In spite of my little rant about ministers and lapel pins, I don’t really care about that sort of thing at all… I care about the soldier I helped bury a few weeks ago. I care about the increasing number of homeless people in my neighborhood. I care about the words “food shortage.”