Doonesbury by Garry Trudeau for October 12, 2012

I’ll probably get flagged for my first comment.

Where are you, Dr. Freud, now that we need you?

Nothing like the blind persistence and naivete of a youthful zealot ! I’m sure she’d love to hear about the Angel Macaroni.

“Fifty percent of uncommitted voters who tuned into Thursday night’s vice presidential debate in Danville, Ky., said they see Vice President Joe Biden as the winner over Mitt Romney’s GOP running mate Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., according to an instant poll taken by CBS News.”π—http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-250_162-57531059/poll-biden-takes-debate-over-ryan-uncommitted-voters-say/

When Mitt leaves, young Michael Bloomberg will come by and witness to him about the evils of soft drinks.

I match their mystified smiles with my own MYSTICAL smile and keep saying, “no thank you, no thank you, no thank you”. Eventually it works and they depart. I always wish them well. They hate it when someone is as excited as they are — they can’t deal with smiles bigger than their own.

leftwingpatriot (yesterday): “I personally believe that Obama is the least religious President since [William] Howard Taft.”.Personally, Obama doesn’t strike me as someone who worships anything other than himself. But Black Liberation Theology influences secular class-warfare-isms. Wright is rooted in Cone. Obama did not grow up in the church – he entered as an adult and adopted Wright as a mentor. Wright is the moral equivalent of Fred Phelps. Would you trust someone who spent 20 years attending Westboro Baptist in public office?.I can understand a person growing up in a churchObama devoted 20 years to that church, in a day and age when racism is supposed to be on the wane..wdgnas (yesterday): “wow, great spin. guilt is a very powerful thing and ALL religions use it”.Read the comment. Almost all religions that lay guilt trips lay them because of stuff you actually did that the religion says is wrong. Black Liberation Theology is different from the objects of your snark – it says all whites are guilty of what some whites did. There isn’t a contemporary parallel in any major Christian denomination (except for some lefty variants of “liberation theology” that are more Marx than Jesus). I don’t see anything like that in other major religions outside Wahhabist or Salafist Islam.

Paul Ryan forbids that.

Troodough seems to be making stuff up.

This story thread is finally getting interesting.

Funny thing, when I lived in Boston, I had more intelligent talks with thew followers of Malcolm X than the Mormons.

ak henderson: are we not all god’s children? and don’t spin it to make it sound like all christian religions are different from one another. they thrive on guilt…

AshburnStadium: Same goods at Costco. Package the lousy wine up then send it to America.

In Peru, the people call the Mormons huevos because they always travel in pairs. (For those you who don’t know any Spanish slang: http://goo.gl/fyt84.)

Does “Manage a Trois” come in three packs?

Is there someone else in panel two?

Good one Omnius! I was going to say Biden killed Eddie Munster last night. Put on your best Joe Biden smile today!

To be fair to Joseph Smith, many charismatic founders of religious and secular groups exploit their authority for their own sexual gratification. Look up John of Leiden, Elijah Muhammed, Jim Jones, David Koresh and Ayn Rand for a few examples.

What do you think the general public would say if you told them that the whole universe was once the size of a small grain of sand? Nah, forget it ………

Actually, no.[]Polygamy didn’t enter the picture until years after the church was officially incorporated. []Anyone who goes straight for the argument you made is usually someone who doesn’t have their facts in a row.

I don’t see how Ryan could claim that his religion informs his policy. That should come back to haunt him, big time. You don’t turn your back on poor folks if you also want to claim to be a good Catholic.

So will we see the mistress next? Who will make the call on that one?

Might want to have a look at http://www.energyfiend.com/ . It typically surprises people to see just how much caffeine they’re consuming on a daily basis without even knowing it.

Not likely. At that time the Mormon church would not have had a man and a woman proselytizing together. Also, I believe Romney came back from his “mission” early because Ann started to date other guys.

Having spent over 25 years of my life living in the Southwest where there were strong LDS communities, I can tell you what I resent most about Mormons – They have great teeth !

Fascinating strip.

@DTPi, Dinkytown

From yesterday, before called away for work/family/debate: I should perhaps have included the phrase “concept of” in my remarks about the differences between the Jewish (concept of) God, the Islamic (concept of) God, and the Christian (concept of) God. And then, there’s each individual’s concept of God, including that there is none at all! I did not mean to imply a pantheon of gods, each belonging to (and in possession of) a particular group of believers. For the purposes of this strip and this discussion, though, I think it’’s useful to consider the differences and how they might come into play in our political arena. Clearly the LDS concept of God is of great interest right now. Does the fact that He has changed His mind so many times about women, blacks, etc. have any bearing on Mitt’s reversibility (thanks, montessoriteacher)? Would Mitt be as changeable in the presidency as he has been to date? This would not be a matter of taking orders from the church, but of taking a cue from one’s deity as to how one might proceed.

@C Downs

Thanks for your response to JerseyJo. I was working on something similar, but you beat me to it, and very nicely, too.

This is excerpted from the official Mormon website;“The name ‘Mormon’ is a nickname because of the Church’s belief in the Book of Mormon (ancient scripture revealed to and recorded by prophets in the Americas during the same time the Bible was being written in the Old World.)”Why did they not record in written word something about the Indian people they were living among?

@dinkytown

Is that Dinkytown, Mpls, Mn? ( I lived there for part of a year during college, 1969, I think. Learned to make candles from a guy who sold his on the bridge.)

@dinkytown

“I don’t see how previous LDS beliefs are any more relevant to Romney than statements made by Jeremiah Wright are to Obama.”

I don’t, either, so I’m listening closely to everything everyone is saying in hopes of learning something! One difference between the Romney-LDS connection and the Obama-Wright connection is that, as I understand it, Romney is completely devoted to his church and its teachings, while the Obamas are sort of generically Protestant, not particularly deeply committed to any one denominational theology or any one preacher’s views. Maybe the reason LDS history is coming up so much in these comments is that people are concerned about a possible "theocratical "approach to the presidency, which Americans have historically rejected. I remember how thick the conversation about this was when JFK was running, and the upshot was that he gave every appearance of thinking for himself as President. Maybe he was in independent thinker anyway, or maybe the conversation put him on notice, but in either case, the conversation sure didn’t do any harm!

@annie

Typo time: that should be “an independent thinker,” not “in.”

Can’t wait to see Obama equivalent series featuring kid growing up with a Muslim dad. Will be interesting to see how well the religion cracks fly.

And when asked what he brings the country replied “Honesty”.

What poll was that? Fox?

‘I would think even the GOP would consider Romney to be far too risky.’I think they’re counting on bullying him into rubberstamping whatever a radical Congress puts in front of him, and as long as it further enriches the wealthy, I have no doubt he will.

I went to Qstar as LWP suggested, and he’s correct. It is a reich-wing organization.

Religion makes hypocrites of us all. Well, except for me, of course.

Pagan Cults Forever!!!!