I'm ready for my confessional

Back when I was a Catholic (Jesus Christ, that was, like, a shitload of years ago) I used to have to go to confession. And when you're only ten years old you don't have much to confess since you're hardly old enough to understand, much less commit, any of the really cool sins. I was pretty much limited to the "name in vain" one and the one about lying; adultery wasn't really an option. After weeks of admitting to not listening to my parents or owning up to the occasional "hell" (this was the early sixties, mind you) I'd start to feel guilty, believing that the priest would think I was holding out on him. So I would plan out my confession for each week (actually practicing it hoping I would sound believable) , throwing in a made-up venal sin or two (" I stole some candy", " I was the second gunman on the grassy knoll"). The fact that I was committing another sin by lying about sinning never crossed my mind, an early indication that going to theological school was not part of my destiny. Which is something else I also don't believe in.

This brings us to our man Mitt's planned upcoming speech which his people will be "straight from the heart":

Romney campaign insiders want to keep a tight lid on information about the Romney faith speech, scheduled for Thursday. Romney himself made the decision to give it, they say, he'll decide what to say, and he'll write it. "This is a very personal speech," one campaign aide told me tonight. "This will be a speech from the heart."

Romney and his team have carefully studied JFK's 1960 speech (which we should post in its entirety here; it's really fascinating).

Considering that this speech has been talked about since last February I find myself skeptical that Mitt's speech hasn't yet been written, focus-grouped, re-written, compared to the Kennedy speech, re-written again, re-focus-grouped, and tightened up once more.

But maybe that's just me. I lack faith, don'cha know.