When I first read through Mitt Romney's religion speech today, even I cringed when I read "freedom requires religion".  If I were a Democrat, I would be using this cringe factor to rail against the evils of conservative Jesus-lovers so that I could feel warm and fuzzy in my liberal righteousness.  However, given that I am Republican, I realize that I must try to rationalize Romney's statement and explain what he meant to those who choose not to actually think the issue through, if not just to confirm their own deeply held beliefs.

Not too long ago, I came across a comment or essay regarding the phrase "all Men are created Equal" and how belief in God was necessary for the founding fathers to have written and agreed to that phrase.  (I wish I could remember where I saw it).  The basic argument was that stripped of all of the moral teachings that we have been brought up with, it's pretty obvious that on almost any scale - physical, mental, spiritual - not one human is truly "equal" to any other human.  That certainly would have been true in the time of slavery to the outside observer.  The only reason we are able to base our society on "all Men are created Equal" is because our underlying equality rests solely on the belief that we are all made in G-d's image.  That is the lowest common denominator of our "equalness".   And without the belief that we are all equal based on G-d's creation, any one person could claim superiority and dominance over any other person for just about any reason imaginable, which is how the erosion of freedom begins.

I realize that in times past, Kings and religious leaders alike used their power and claim to divine authority to enslave people.  But that was then and this is now.  Perhaps that is why Romney tacked on the second part of the phrase "and religion requires freedom".  Without freedom (and along with it, education) you would sink back to those heinous "religious" realms of olden times.

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There are some headlines that just cry out for attention.  Kangaroo Farts Could Ease Global Warming.

My question isn't whether the sign below is somehow inappropriate (see here for more)...I'm just wondering if the price per pound was marked up like kosher meats!