Reason and Radical

No Sense of History; No Sense at All

This morning on the local NPR station, I heard something like this (which I assume was a line sent by NPR for local anchors to read in the local breaks during 'Morning Edition' promoting an upcoming segment):

"Senator Obama's visit to Germany has all the religious fervor usually reserved for a visit by the pope."

OK.

First, there isn't anything remotely religious about this.

Second, Germany has very few Catholics (remember Martin Luther?) and would not exactly get all worked up about a visit from the pope.

That reminds me of living in Buffalo, a very, very Catholic community, where there was a priest named Father Goldberg. Yes, he was German. Of course, most Americans perceive Goldberg as a Jewish name, as I did, so I found a Catholic priest named Goldberg to be incongruous.

posted by Leimodnu @ 1:45 PM