Just a thought or two and some thanks for the priviledge and honor my family has given me in allowing me the title of father and husband.

More after the fold.

Thirteen years almost to the day my son was born. He was the result of an unplanned pregnancy. My wife and I were driving halfway across the country for me to start graduate school. At a stopover in  western New York, my wife said she felt strange. She seemed unable to satisfy an insatiable hunger. And her period was late. She got up from the restaurant where we were having dinner, and went to the drugstore across the street to pick up a pregnancy test. "You knocked me up," she said when the test came up positive. When we got to our destination, the first thing we did was set up an appointment at the local Planned Parenthood office. Definitely positive. The woman that told us the result couldn't help but smile when she saw the look of joy and terror on our faces. Now, I look back and smile, too, but not so much about our predicament. I'm remembering the night we got pregnant. It was a memorably good lay.

Anyway, my son will become a bar mitzvah  by undertaking an ancient Jewish coming-of-age ritual. He will chant Torah, make a speech, and lead the prayer service. I have composed some thoughts about what I will say to him this Saturday in front of our congregation. Here is what I'll say:

To recap my diary from yesterday:

I had been following THIS TRAGIC STORY about Debbie Shank over the last day or so and it just broke my heart.  When I finally read the most recent update - that her son had been killed in Iraq just days after they lost their appeal of the Walmart judgment against them, I cried while I was reading the article.

Here's Keith Olbermann's story on it, ranking Walmart as Wednesday's Worst Person in the World."

Haven't heard anything about this in the MSM. As we fight about our candidates the world carries on.

Bin Laden son wants to be peace activist

Osama Bin Laden's Son Says He Wants to Be Peace Ambassador Between West, Muslims
Omar Osama bin Laden bears a striking resemblance to his notorious father — except for the dreadlocks that dangle halfway down his back. Then there's the black leather biker jacket.

This is....disturbing to say the least. Hat tips to crooks-and-liars and Digby

From Fox News

In 1998, David Huckabee was among two boys fired from a Boy Scout camp after a stray dog was killed after wandering onto camp property. David Huckabee, 17 at the time, said the dog appeared ill; no charges were filed. The elder Huckabee said then that politics was behind the dog-killing accusation.

But, as Digby digs up, there is more to this story than a simple 'dog killing'....

He just got the phone call.  They told him that his acceptance package was in the mail, and "Welcome to the Hiram family!"

The boy and I traveled to Hiram, OH to visit the campus last summer.  It's beautiful.  Truly a world class liberal arts college.  They seem to produce well rounded citizens that question authority on a regular basis.  I liked that, and so did my boy.

(More gush below the fold)