Prima Facie

Red Green. You either think the show is stupid or think he's just about the funniest thing on TV. Of course you may never have heard of him or seen his 1/2 hour show on PBS. It's all reruns now - he retired a couple of years ago - but if you're a fan, as we are, they're just as funny the second or third time around.
It helps if you've lived in the upper Midwest and understand the kind of humor that only comes when you spend half the year freezing your backside off shoveling snow. The kind of mental illness that produces is best exemplified by what they call ice fishing.
The Red Green Show is a Canuck production (Canadian, for those of you who've never dealt with that unique breed). If you click on the video link to the upper right of the side bar you'll see clip from one of the shows. If you want more, a) do a search for Red Green on YouTube and b) consider seeing a mental health professional.

I did my jury duty today and tomorrow I'll be going to the FBR with Steve! I was in the first group called, 30 of us out of about 300 summoned. We were in the pool for a civil suit where the plaintiff was seeking money for medical treatment and "pain & suffering" as a result of an auto accident. We all got asked questions, first by the judge, then by each of the two attorneys. By the time they were done we broke for lunch. When we reconvened at about 1:45 they called out the six chosen to serve on the jury and my name wasn't called. So I'm done!
Lawyers don't use legal pads. At least these didn't. Who does?
The plaintiff's attorney said we would hear that his client was in a long-term, monogamous same-sex relationship. He asked if that fact would affect our ability to make an objective judgment. One guy said yes (it wasn't me). Interesting. I'm not sure what that had to do with the case.
The judge and the jury clerk were nice, courteous and genuinely appreciative. That sure helped me feel better about the experience.

As I drove into town this morning I thought about last night's post and the potential results of having a President who is a Mormon. I know a fair amount about Mormon theology - did some significant reading on it several years ago. But aside from several doctrinal tenets that can accurately be labeled heretical vis a' vis biblical teaching, it seems to me there's a very basic problem with Mormonism that is apparent without knowing anything about their theology. It's a problem shared by Scientology. Both "religions" are officially secretive. They bind their adherents by oath, forbidding them from divulging key elements of their practices.
Why?
I can't think of a reason why truth should be secret, why a God who loves us and reaches out to us would want only the initiated to know even some of the stuff. If God's goal is to save us, to rescue us from something...anything...what purpose is served by holding information back from all but those already "in"?
If it doesn't make sense that God wouldn't want everyone to know the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, what would motivate a religion to keep some of it secret?
Are they embarrassed about it? Does it enable them to feel superior to the uninitiated? Does it confer a sense of power on those who dispense the secrets to those who jump through whatever hoops are required to gain entrance into the inner circle?
(I think a Jack Nicholson movie line goes in here.)
I suppose it's a good thing to have a President who can keep a secret. That would seem to be a job requirement. But if he belongs to a secretive religion, a religion that says those on the outside aren't qualified or capable of hearing God's truth, and has bound him by oath (on pain of death) to keep those secrets...? I'm not at all comfortable with that.

A drunk ant will always fall over to its right side.
Beethoven dipped his head in cold water before he composed.
The typical American child receives 70 new toys each year.