Facts are not variable. Everyone is entitled to his or her own opinion, but NOT his or her own FACTS. I am getting really exasperated with the trend toward fact-free blathering. What's so hard about popping over to www.factcheck.org every now and again? It's non-partisan, and on the rare occasion when an Obama ad has something misleading, they vociferously expose it. It's not really anyone's fault that that happens less often than the other, and it's certainly not Obama's fault. He committed to not running a sleazefest, and it appears that he's tried very hard to meet that commitment.

Today I received the following piece from my future brother-in-law, and I thought it was really good, so I'm sharing it. Let's expose some hypocrisy, shall we?

************

I'm a little confused. Let me see if I have this straight...

1. If you
* grow up in Hawai'i , raised by your grandparents, you're "exotic, different."
But, if you
* Grow up in Alaska eating Moose burgers, a quintessential American story.

2. If
* your name is Barack you're a radical, unpatriotic Muslim.
But, if you
* Name your kids Willow , Trig and Track, you're a maverick.

3. If you
* Graduate from Harvard law School and you are unstable.
But, if you
* Attend 5 different small colleges before graduating, you're well grounded.

4. If you
*spend 3 years as a brilliant community organizer, become the first black president of the Harvard Law Review, create a voter registration drive that registers 150,000 new voters, spend 12 years as a Constitutional Law professor, spend 8 years as a State Senator representing a district with over 750,000 people, become chairman of the state Senate's Health and Human Services committee, spend 4 years in the United States Senate representing a state of 13 million people while sponsoring 131 bills and serving on the Foreign Affairs, Environment and Public Works and Veteran's Affairs committees, you don't have any real leadership experience.
But, if
* your total resume is: local weather girl, 4 years on the city council and 6 years as the mayor of a town with less than 7,000 people, 20 months as the governor of a state with only 650,000 people, then you're qualified to become the country's second highest ranking executive and first in line behind a man in his eighth decade.

5. If you
*have been married to the same woman for 19 years while raising 2 beautiful daughters, all within Protestant churches, you're not a real Christian.
But, if you
* cheated on your first wife with a rich heiress, and then left your disfigured wife and married the heiress the next month, you're a true Christian.

6. If you
* teach responsible, age-appropriate sex education, including the proper use of birth control, you are eroding the fiber of society.
But,
* If, while governor, you staunchly advocate abstinence only, with no other option in sex education in your state's school system while your unwed teen daughter ends up pregnant, you're very responsible.

7. If
* your wife is a Harvard graduate lawyer who gave up a position in a prestigious law firm to work for the betterment of her inner city community, then gave that up to raise a family, your family's values don't represent America's.
But, if
* your husband is nicknamed "First Dude", with at least one DWI conviction and no college education, who didn't register to vote until age 25 and once was a member of a group that advocated the secession of Alaska from the USA, your family is extremely admirable.

O.K. -- much clearer now.