Brown's Tirade Days Before Vote a Lot Like Susan Boyle

This article was originally published by Technorati on 28 April 2010. To see all my Technorati articles, click Lifestyle in the Contents listing on the sidebar.

Anyone remember Susan Boyle? Of course you do. She's an international recording star now. England's Prime Minister Gordon Brown is showing shades of Boyle in the run-up to general parliamentary elections one week from today--and I'm not talking about his baritone pipes.

The parallels are uncanny: just days before an important vote, Boyle popped off at a couple of reporters in a hotel lobby, and it cost her the crown. But at least she had the decency to tell them what she thought of them to their faces.

Today, Gordon Brown on the campaign trail in northwest England popped off at a potential voter, and a sympathetic one at that. After the woman held forth on taxes, the national debt and immigration--all the usual stuff--Brown got into the back of his limo and rode away . . . with a hot lapel mic still in place.

Lessons Learned from Franklin Graham and the Pentagon's National Day of Prayer

This article was originally published by Technorati on 23 April 2010. To see all my Technorati articles, click Lifestyle in the Contents listing on the sidebar.

Well it looks like the Franklin Graham-Pentagon National Day of Prayer imbroglio is over. After complaints from Muslim participants and a formal objection by a religious rights group, the Pentagon Chaplain's Office disinvited Graham from the May 6th service.

Perhaps the National Day of Prayer Task Force, which organizes the yearly Pentagon event, acted unwisely in selecting as its Honorary Chairman Graham, who has called Islam an "evil and wicked religion"; has said Muslims are "enslaved by their religion"; and has confirmed his opinion yet again that he believe that Islam is "just horrid."

The decision was especially ill-taken, given that the National Day of Prayer is meant to be an ecumenical endeavor.