Not letting your right hand — or potential voters — know what you’re giving…

Presidential candidate Mitt Romney has said that he is reluctant to release more of his tax returns because he doesn’t want others to know how much he gives to his Mormon church.

There’s actually a scriptural reference for that.

The presidential candidates discuss their faith

Both Pres. Barack Obama and presumptive Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney answered nine questions from Cathedral Age.

You can read it here: CathedralAgeFaithAndTheElection

Romney’s favorite verse?

I am always moved by the Lord’s words in Matthew: “For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: Naked, and ye clothed me.”
(matthew 25:35–36, kjv).

And Obama’s?

I do have a few favorites. Isaiah 40:31 has been a great source of encouragement in my life, and I quote from it often. Psalm 46 is also important to me; I chose to read it on the tenth anniversary of 9/11. Niebuhr’s serenity prayer is a good one as well.
I’ve also been blessed to receive a daily devotional from my faith advisor, Joshua DuBois, who will send me Scripture or thoughts from people such as C.S. Lewis or Howard Thurman every morning.

 

Just in case you’re unsure about your presidential vote:

Go here, and take a test that should help you decide in November.

You’re welcome.

But thank Jessie. She posted this on Facebook, and I stole it.

(Total disclosure? I side 95 percent of the time with Green Party candidate Jill Stein, 88 percent of the time with Pres. Barack Obama, and six percent of the time with presumed Republican candidate Mitt Romney. I wonder what six percent hat would be?

(Sarcasm switch on: Big surprise. Huge. Sarcasm switch off.)

So…Paul Ryan…

Over the weekend, Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney chose Rep. Paul Ryan as his running mate — or he named him president, whatever.

When Ryan introduced his “Path to Prosperity” budget plan earlier this year, the world stopped, gawked, and then pulled out its knives and forks for its ill treatment of the poor, the infirmed, the elderly.

Ryan, a devout Catholic, could not get his bishops on board. Even his running mate is distancing himself from Ryan’s plan.

Here. See for yourself: pathtoprosperity2013

Well? Would YOU go?

The Catholic bishop who sued the Obama administration over providing contraceptives to their clients has invited the President to dinner.

That has all the makings of some good table fellowship — or some really awkward silences.

The Alfred E. Smith Foundation Dinner could be interesting this year — though it’s not considered a religious event, but something more like a school board meeting, or a zoning board meeting with yuks thrown in. Republican hopeful Mitt Romney was invited, and he’s said yes. (That list of past speakers is certainly overwhelmingly white&male.)

Which is more important: The First Amendment? Or the Second?

Florida Gov. Rick Scott plans to appeal a court ruling that struck down his state’s 2011 ban on doctors asking patients about guns in their homes.

It’s called the Docs vs. Glocks rule, and was a piece of legislation heavily favored by the National Rife Association.

The announcement comes less than a month before the GOP meets in Tampa, to, mostly likely, nominate Mitt Romney as their presidential candidate.

Hey, Leftover! Mitt just may be your man.

I agree with Sharon, who put this on Facebook and then I stole it. This sounds like single-payer to me: Everybody in. Nobody out.

Mitt Romney? Show us your papers.

More of your tax returns, that is.

And here’s just a bit more on Candidate Romney and taxes.

Bain/Bane Capital Rises!

To read more about Bain Capital, go here.

All the education you can afford…

Recently, the likely Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney was quoted saying:

I think this is a land of opportunity for every single person, every single citizen of this great nation. And I want to make sure that we keep America a place of opportunity, where everyone has a fair shot. They get as much education as they can afford and with their time they’re able to get and if they have a willingness to work hard and the right values, they ought to be able to provide for their family and have a shot of realizing their dreams.

Uh, Mr. Romney? If I’d gotten as much education as I could afford, I would have stopped at high school, when most of us not blessed to be Romneys have to start paying for our education. I would have continued reading and educating myself, but I wouldn’t have begun to know how to challenge myself to learn more, to pull up out of the socio-economic group into which I was born, to find a job that didn’t involve me bending over hundreds of thousands of flannel shirts, or bib overalls, or any other of the jobs that awaited me in southwest Missouri.

I don’t say that to belittle those jobs. I have family who worked them, and friends who continue to work them, mostly because they did precisely what you suggested, and got all the education they could afford, and then they stopped. Who knows what lives they might have lived, had they had the opportunity of student loans or scholarships, or any other infusion of money that allowed them to continue on to college and beyond? I guess we’ll never know. All I know is I took out loans and worked multiple jobs and got some scholarships and when I graduated and the first loan payment came due, I paid it. I paid that debt off early, in fact, just as I knew I would. With that college degree I could get a job that would allow me to pay my debts, including the debt I incurred by going to college. It was debt well worth it, and I’d do it again.

I suppose this is a step up from your earlier suggestion that would-college students or entrepreneurs borrow money from their parents. Perhaps you meant borrow money from your parents, as mine didn’t have any.

I don’t see people like me in your vision for the future of education in America, Mr. Romney. Or, rather, I see people like me, and we’re all stuck at getting just the education we can afford. So: No. Thank you.