Congratulations to Lithuania!
Lithuania, and several other countires, joined NATO today. Huzzah!

Congratulations Senator Byrd!
Congratulations are also in order for Senator Robert Byrd who, if I heard correctly this morning, yesterday cast his 17,000 vote in the Senate, far surpassing Strom Thurmon’s record.

Although Senator Byrd is not the longest serving member of of Senate, he has by far cast more votes than anyone else.

In other words, he shows up and does the job we sent him to Washington to do.

In the Clash of Religion and History
There was a fascinating interview last night on Fresh Air, with John Dominic Crossan. He is a biblical scholar and discussed the history of crucifixion and the world during the life of Jesus. Absolutely fascinating.

Thanks Ben!
And thanks go out to my cousin Ben, who sent me an e-mail that had me repeatedly laughing out loud. One of his closing lines was this: “send cookies. if you do i will climb a mountain for you. or a rock face, please specify size.”

He’ll be remain in Kyrgyzstan until the end of this year, when his term with the Peace Corps ends. Not sure what he’ll do then, but I have tremendous respect for him, for leaving his family for over two years to go live among strangers. I couldn’t do it.