For those of you who've never been to a Passover Seder, go, try one. I guarantee you will appreciate and never take for granted the concept of Freedom again. The Seder commemorates by recreating the enslavement of the Hebrews by the Egyptians many moons ago. You are enslaved in this ceremony that goes on and on and on. Your stomach growls as you smell the food cooking and tempting you. Sure, you get a little taste of matzoh, charoset (chopped apples, cinnamon, and nuts), and maror (fresh grated horseradish). Sure, you get four cups of wine, more if you screw up the blessings. But the fact is, the seder is a test of endurance. The original Survivor. You start out reclining and as the hours drone on, the eyes get heavy. Last person awake gets to eat. More than once I've lifted a Grandma out of an empty soup bowl.

If you have kids it becomes a special challenge. They get antsy and irritable after 10 minutes trying to stay seated. After 3 hours better check your insurance policy because something is gonna burn. They are hungry!! I've seen my kids gnawing on the furniture. The Four Questions get reduced to One: "When the ^*%* do we eat?" Usually we give up trying to keep them seated after an hour and so we undo the seatbelts, handcuffs, leg irons and let them play. We adults will suffer for them.

Finally after 5-10 hours and many longing stares at the family dog it's time to eat. Consumption records get set at this point. I've witnessed entire Seder meals - from soup to dessert - get wolfed in under 20 minutes. It's a primal feeding and afterwards you better count the number of children and check the dog for teethmarks. Afterwards there's a quiet clean-up as we look within ourselves and grimace at our just-displayed lack of humanity. But we are Free, we are Liberated, until the next night when it starts all over.

Blogging in the Good Ol' USA
Little Miss Attila - the Rah! Rah! Bush supporter - has moved her blog from a U.S. based site to one offshore. So typical of that ilk. Sipping her frothy cuppa and complaining about those damn Liberals. She probably still believes that WMDs are in Iraq, Bush didn't lie, and tax cuts for the rich are good for the Economy...

Vice President
Interesting that Bush hasn't formally named Cheney as running mate, nor has Kerry named anyone. Could be a make-or-break deal for either of them, though pity Governor Ah-nold can't run alongside Bush. That'd likely give Bush a chance at a real, honest election win.

For Kerry the field is wide open. John Edwards is an obvious choice and he said as such. He'd bring a clean youthful look and could use the grooming for a run in 2008 or 2012. Kerry and Edwards could likely work together. Howard Dean would be an interesting choice in that Dean could possibly bring back people to the Democrats who are now looking at Nader but whether Kerry and Dean could work together seems dubious. For a guaranteed win over Bush, Kerry could tap Hillary Clinton but doubtful Kerry would like a veep that's more popular and gets more focus than him. More importantly he'd a President with a nice big bulls-eye on his back as some may find having a Female President too tempting.

The worst Kerry could do is get someone with an obvious religious bent, like Lieberman. That's playing towards the Republicans and would further knock down The Wall of Separation. Enough with religion in our political system. No Lieberman or Sharpton.

Who do you think? I'd like to hear some good nominees with supporting rationales?

But God Said
The woman who stoned her kids to death (one barely survived) because God told her so was found "Not Guilty by Reason of Insanity" and gets to spend the next 6 months in a loony prison. Despite the heinousness of the crime what gets me is the underlying absurdity of the reason. If God told her to proselytize on a street corner - no problem. If God told her to go kill heathen - no problem, right? In the Torah/Old Testament God commands people to kill all the time, wipe out tribes and nations, kill brethren. So if God told this woman to kill her kids who are we to judge otherwise? If she had not killed but instead claimed to have had a vision of God she'd likely have lines of people outside her door. Preachers, many politicians and celebrities claim to have communicated all the time with God so what's the big deal? That she killed her kids? Does any of us know Gods plan? Of course not so, again, how can we judge her?

Ain't Religion wonderful? Do any damn fool thing you want and you have a built-in excuse. Personally I think this woman may be insane but should have been found guilty anyway with an appropriate penalty. Poor kids.