PSoTD

You can get it done if you really want to know what breeds of dog your pet is...

They share the same facial expression in the following examples:

Dog: Barking at a dog that is going by. I take her head and scratch her behind the ears to try to calm her down, and she's looking at me, but all the while is thinking about getting back to the door to check if she needs to bark some more.

Kids: Yelling at each other about almost anything. I take them and tell them they need to settle it without yelling, arguing is fine but name-calling and loud voices are not. They look at me nodding but all the while thinking about how they are going to tell me it's the other person's fault.

Wheels turning, ears just for show.

When you don't take responsibility for what you believe...

Anglo-americans (who are mostly christian) do not understand the concept that in Islam, as in Judaism, you are BORN into the religion (it is not a "choice"). In Judaism it is matrilineal, in Islam it is patrilineal.

One of the side benefits of having an Obama candidacy is that it gets this discussion of religion out on the table. Who determines your faith and your beliefs - you, or your parents?

The above simplistic review of religion categorizes it as an all or nothing question. I just can't see it that way. In the end, each individual has the responsibility of accepting or declining even the tiniest article within a belief structure, regardless of what their parents say. Period. Some religious cultures try to take that option away from the individual with the idea that a person is "born into" a religion.

But that is part of the faith's structure, and each individual has the option to accept or reject it. Even if most accept it, that does not mean that the option isn't there. Even if the religious culture demeans the individual for rejecting it, that doesn't mean the option is there. If a child is born of Jewish parents, who then immediately put the child up for adoption, and the child is adopted by Christian parents who raise the child as Christian - what is that child? When the child decides, as she grows up, that she accepts Buddhism as her faith, what is that person?

In other words - faith is not genetic regardless of what religious conventions may push. And it's time this country start getting their heads around this a bit more.

Every odd-numbered year, my two brothers' families and ours get together for a big family summer vacation. The selection process rotates, and this time it's my job to find the spot. So, I'm looking for input. I've narrowed it down to about 10 different places around the country, and by the end of this summer I need to have the place figured out. Have any suggestions?

So... who has vacationed in Vermont? None of us have - three families, five kids between 8 and 15, and we're looking at various places in the U.S. for vacation in 2009. Sell me on Vermont.