Freedom requires religion?

Massachusetts has a time-honored tradition of putting nut-job politicians on the national stage. Remember, this is Kennedy country. So, even though Mitt Romney was a one-term, undistinguished guvnuh, he showed good form in his speech on faith in America the other day. Without religion, he lectured us, we cannot see, appreciate, and apply the deep thoughts required to sustain freedom and thus are not strong enough to receive the gift of liberty.

Um, no.

Article VI:
... no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.

Continuing the search for the

Continuing the search for the lost hippies. This time, they've been sighted in N. Adams MA, where graybeards play the fiddle in coffee shops.

Bug-compatible

People who use any piece of software (or, perhaps, anything) long enough will become accustomed to its fault, regarding those misbehaviors as quirks of the system. Some of the quirks are interesting enough to be regarded as features.

Then, when it comes time for an upgrade, users will howl like three-year-olds fixes something that they've already adapted to. This story is a fine example of what we at a former company used to call a bug-compatible release.

On demographics

'Splain this. On the local Fox affiliate, before and during a rerun episode of the Simpsons, we see ads from the following:

• Hilary Clinton
• Mitt Romney
• Rudy Giuliani
  
• Olay Regenerist (a facial treatment, not a third-party candidate)

Venturing out

Sandra and I had a nice day while waiting for the storm to come. We first went to Bodies, the Exhibition. (The website has an annoying amount of Flash.) The exhibition shows detailed views of human bodies and organs, delicately preserved and well-presented. It's not for the squeamish, particularly the section on human embryos. It is for anyone who wants a good view of bone, muscle, skin, blood vessels, nerves, lungs, and naughty bits.

Afterwards, we wandered down the road to the newly renovated, upscale mall, Natick Collection. So, they have Nordstrom's, Neiman Marcus, Brooks Brothers, and lots of single-name boutiques. But, they also have a guy selling Black & Decker power tools in a kiosk. The mall wasn't very busy. As expected, the non-crowds were pretty much white - stylin' teens, young families and screaming kids, football widows, and a grandmotherly-type woman with long gray hair and a Bluetooth headset. We didn't buy anything except lunch. (Service at the Nordstrom Cafe was very strange, but they gave us a bowl of French onion soup and a bread pudding to compensate for our waiting a half hour for our meal.

It was a bid sad to look around at the clothes and other stuff that I might need if I was going to go to work. Nordstrom had some cool and colorful socks. Good for them. I have plenty of sock and can't bring myself to buy any more, at least not now.

Oh, yeah, one more thing. I can't let a day at a mall in December go by without saying, "I know that this has something to do with Jesus, but, darned if I can figure out what it is."