Here is representative Wynn's voting record on Energy, a committee on which he serves -

http://www.ontheissues.org/House/Albert_Wynn.htm#Energy_+ ...

I am curious why it is deficient -

Yes - to implement Kyoto protocol
Yes - to continue ban on drilling in ANWR
No - on schedules and on permitting of refineries
Yes - to remove oil and gas subsidies
etc, etc, etc,

90% rating from LCVoters

That presumably means something ...

Lovely to have you back, DR, after your Saint Valentine's Day romp.  Hot-tubbing strikes me as a rather over-rated form of West coast hedonism, but whatever.  Whiskey at least is universal and timeless.

(Actually, the choice of hot-tub-side drink matters a great deal.  Many years ago, when I was a guest at a hot tub in Marin, the Beverage of the Hour was Armagnac.  I do not think that would be my order today, but back then it hit the spot.)

As for "Christ on a popsicle stick," that is a Eucharistic idea that I doubt would be of much interest to the Bishop of Rome; but it should not surprise us if the Archbishop of Canterbury were to find it very interesting indeed.  It promises to add yet another bold application of that profound ecclesiological dictum, "Many are cold, but few are frozen."

By the way, you write:

<<
I was up in a condo on Mt. Hood for four days ....   The first day we spent on Timberline ....  The next three days we hit Meadows ....
>>

Does that mean that a fair amount of driving was taking place?  There is nothing wrong with that, necessarily, of course, but there are a few who might prefer to park the car at the beginning of a mountain holiday, then to forget it for the duration.

Any wildlife sightings worth mentioning?

On politics: Our understanding of the Potomac Primaries was indeed all the shallower for the temporary silence of your voice.

Obama is growing on me -- and, on the other side, Hillary has begun a new disgusting chapter by seeming to insist that the Florida and Michigan delegates be counted, totally against any consideration of fairness -- , so I am not displeased by Obama's momentum.

On the other hand, many of Obama's supporters are sadly carrying on with their narrative of obnoxious superiority.

In yesterday's Sunday New York Times, at the top of the Week in Review section, Kate Zernike writes very nicely on the subject of the "cult of personality," with regard to Obama:

<<
Today that term is all around Barack Obama -- perhaps because there seems so little other way to explain how a first-term senator has managed to dazzle his way to front-runner in the race for the presidency, how he walks on water for so many supporters, and how the mere suggestion that he is, say, mortal, risks vehement objection, or at least exposing the skeptic as deeply uncool.
>>

See this, for the whole shpeel:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/17/weekinreview/17zernike. ....

Then, on the back page, see Dave Eggers' semi-facetious, semi-suicidal lament, "Losing to Idaho," on the way-deep uncoolness of his own California, usually at the leading edge of everything cool, actually going for Hillary on Super Tuesday, and so falling behind such dismal places, progressive-wise, as Idaho, Nebraska and Delaware.

He tries to find consolation, at last, by thinking that his people up by the Bay were as cool and progressive and cutting-edge as ever, voting for Obama; but that the total California vote was weighed down by those unspeakable characters down in LA County.

Chickens are our cousins! So are fish! So are other sentient animals! Let us learn to be kind.

Oh right, this was stupendously newsworthy:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/02/17/charles-barkley- ...

It is always the right time to express disgust for Republicans, conservatives, and, especially, conservative Christians.

It is good to stand up for women's reproductive rights.

It is heroic, within the African-American community especially but really in homophobic America generally, to stand up for same-sex marriage.

And, as a kind of lagniappe, it is pleasant to endorse Barack Obama.

Chickens are our cousins! So are fish! So are other sentient animals! Let us learn to be kind.