GOP hornswoggled by minority nut-jobs from the extreme right-wing of the Party!

House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH): "I'm against shutting down the government. It's a counter-productive thing to do and Republicans will pay a heavy price if we do it."
Boehner admirer: Speaker Boehner is a brave and honorable man; and even though he's against this minority group of Republican congressmen who are screaming for an impossible dream - to reverse Obama-care - and who want to shut down the government for no other reason than spitefulness, the speaker must still consider the will of the majority."
News reporter: "But if he's listening to the majority of Republicans, aren't they on his side of the equation and against a government shutdown? It seems to me that this loud minority of Republicans who represent a fringe faction of the Party, a faction that refuses to compromise and oppose any legislation with the president's name attached to it . are pushing the majority out of the way.  Isn't that true?
Admirer: "Well, yes that's true. But you have to understand, Speaker Boehner is attacked almost daily by this small group of thugs who jump out at him while he's walking down the garden path.
"And though they are only about 30 or 40 - up to 60 if the issue gets "hot" enough - they still can cause Speaker Boehner big problems because if he can't get all his Republican votes for legislation that supports the Party's agenda, then he is essentially a lame-duck speaker."
News reporter: "But if the speaker is such an honorable and, I believe you said, brave man, then wouldn't he do better to oppose the 'thugs' who have backed him into a corner?"
Admirer: "You have to understand, despite their small number in Congress, these folks, who simply refuse to be led by anyone, can stir up a hornets nest out there in the states where the GOP still holds sway, despite a creeping burden of irrelevance that these stiff-necked cultists have thrust upon the GOP."
Reporter: "Still, it seems to me that the speaker would be better served by facing down the minority faction while it still has little influence among House members. Otherwise, won't their power base begin to grow with each perceived win? Isn't the speaker, in fact, giving the thugs the power they want?"
Admirer: Well, put that way I suppose it's true. But politics is a strange business. Sometimes you have to lay down with fleas to befriend big dogs, so to speak."
Reporter: "Huh?"
Boehner: "Huh?"

(Quotes for dramatic effect - not accurate. But the drift of the exchange is factual!)
Weird, ain't it?

Deb's baby girl marries, and a new chapter of life begins for us all.

Young lovers marry for life, for mutual comfort, for the innate joy of having each other,  and for desire, passion, and selfless giving; bound together by a spark of galactic fire that wreaths their hearts in a glow that comes only from family; and everyone who witnessed the ceremony felt happy, too! 

The most magical secular wedding ceremony I've ever seen!

The judge was a joker; a man who knew both families and had tales to share about someone from each quarter - the Lovell/Watsons and the Wooduls. 

The wedding flooded the courtroom - six floors above the city streets - with giddy excitement, grace, and a sense of solemnity not often experienced in those chestnut-paneled walls, and baize-colored carpeted floor.

It's September in Texas, and it feels more like California! The temperatures have hovered around the mid-80s each day, and the sunrises look like molten gold streaming across the azure shores of the ocean sky.

Too cool!

So now I salute the new little family that two people chose to form with their love. It's a precious, wonderful thing to behold, and to know, if only vicariously.