You're Either With Us Or You're Against Christmas

Just some Random Thoughts/Links today:

• A fire broke out today at the Old Executive Office Building, in a room right next to the Vice President's office. Little-Known Fun Fact: Fire is actually Dick Cheney's natural habitat.
• The Vatican has officially condemned The Golden Compass. First of all, their take on the book is way wrong. Pullman is saying, among other things, that any true all-knowing, all-powerful God would mean destiny exists even though people may be tricked into thinking they have free will (which is not completely against what Descartes wrote); the absence of such a God would lead to a world full of hope. My big problem is the Church saying that the film is "anti-Christmas". I don't quite follow the connection there. I'm sure the Vatican isn't just using buzz words to get press attention -- they're much too holy for that. And I'm sure this has nothing to do with how the books are very much about how slow the Vatican is to accept progress and how it does its best to quash science that disagrees with it.
• A few weeks ago, I ranted about what a poor campaign Obama was running. Color me wrong. He's stuck by his guns: a positive vibe, being forward-thinking, being the candidate of change. This positive energy has carried him to the lead in race for the nomination. Hey, perception changes. He really may be the inspiration we've been looking for after these eight long, dark years.
  
• Tomorrow night: Pittsburgh (-7.5) vs. St. Louis