Happy Friday

The Grammy nominations are out and the two big nominees are Kanye West and Amy Winehouse. I hear West from time to time and he is OK but I am a huge fan of Amy Winehouse. I bought her album Black To Black from iTunes a couple weeks ago and was blown away. It's the best album I've heard in years. If you haven't listened to it check it out. Like everything theses days it is definitely R Rated but the emotion and sheer raw talent throughout the album gave me goose bumps. It's awesome.

Yesterday the big political news was the speech by Mitt Romney about his Mormon faith. To me it is no big deal. I look at Mormons as I look at any religious group. Actually I may view them slightly more favorably. My experience with Mormonism is part of the reason why. When I was in my mid 20's I worked with a guy who was Mormon. He was middle aged (which seemed old at the time) and I think an official in the local Mormon church. When I found out he was Mormon I was interested because, like a lot of people, I thought they allowed polygamy (which, to be totally honest, was a way of life I thought I would feel comfortable with). They don't and I never really followed up on it. It probably would have been a bad reason to join a religion anyway.
Fast Forward 15 years and my next exposure to Mormons was when I was living in Las Vegas where there are tons of them. It was there where I really got to become familiar with the Mormon church. They are definitely frowned upon by traditional conservative Christians and I heard them referred to as a "cult" or "tribe" very often. The Mormons I met however were actually very nice, and seemed easier to related to than the traditional fundamentalist types (If you didn't know there are A LOT of strict religious people in Las Vegas). Also the Mormon girls I met in Las Vegas were sweet, attractive and fun to hang out with. Good people!
During my brief return to Florida, one of my roommate was Mormon so I got even a closer look at it. I saw that during hurricanes THEY were the one to take in refugees and THEY also were first on the scene to help people. I was mightily impressed that they were proactive in providing good deeds. On the downside they did come to the apartment frequently to check with my roomie whenever she missed a service. I also went to one of their services and it was fascinating. My main memory was having a small group of elders siting very high up on pedestal looking down at us all and making little marks in their books. I found that a bit disarming but otherwise it was fine.
So, the way I look at it - I wouldn't become a Mormon but from what I have seen they are good, sincere people who actively seek to help the less fortunate. I like their tithing policy and overall have positive feeling toward Mormons. (Plus, it's kind of amazing that they chose to live in the mountains of Utah which will be one of the few places in the USA to survive if Global warming really goes all the way.) So, I would have no problem with a Mormon as President (although I'd strongly prefer a Democratic Mormon to a Republican Mormon).

Surprise, surprise! The videotape of CIA interrogations were destroyed. Just how much corruption will the America people tolerate before they say enough? I remember how the "conservatives" were so apoplectic about perceived wrongdoing by Bill Clinton. Their silence during the past 7 years shows me that they have no interest in honesty or even in the future of the United States. Shame on the media too. Let's see if they give this the same attention as they did the Monica Lewinsky story. Fat chance.

Happy Friday!