Re your points, I have a smidge more to say another day (or at least time, when not chained to the office desk), but...

BEST OF LUCK IN YOUR INTERVIEW, CRAIG!

Drop by later and leave us a Quick 'Take as to how it went.

I know how hard it is out there right now!

Love the Jehovah's Witness post.  I'm curious as to how he eventually got out of it.  

See, I'm the person who can, at times, be um...

The impulse buyer.

I pay for Maxim and Blender (although I don't actually read them) monthly, because I felt obligated to a cashier at FYE to buy a subscription.  

Impulse buys at the register?? Try countless PEZ dispensers, terrible "NOW that's what I call music" CD's with like, maybe one decent song each..., "A Walk To Remember," bendy grill lighters, bumper stickers... etc etc etc

I don't really want or need these things... but hey, people went to great lengths to put them on display... and IT MIGHT COME IN HANDY!

I have a feeling the JW would come to my house and I'd be all like "ETERNAL BLISS!?! SIGN ME UP!!"

Then once they left, I'd sit with my pamphlets and really let the gravity of what had just transpired set in... and then feel BAD because in reality I think they're idiots... but they came to my HOUSE and spent TIME with me.. so I'd have to be a Jehovah's Witness...

And I don't need that.

So, instead I hide.  

Kudos to MJF.

He is a greater man than I.

As for the Messiah thing.  I don't think I know anyone calling him the Messiah--except for the righties who are using it to bash the lefties...

Maybe I'm missing something??  DO we liberals hail Obama as the Messiah??  DO the Democrats??  

Nice post, Craig.  AND THANKS :)

(and good luck)

I don't mean funny weird, I mean funny haha. Although you might be funny weird as well... I just don't know you well enough to make that call. :)

I guess it is important to understand other points of view. We needed to understand Hitler so as not to make the same mistakes again. We need to understand killers such as Manson and Dahmer to avoid falling victim to them in the future. This doesn't mean that either point has functional society value in a positive way though. Not every point of view is sacred. I used to invite JWs in for fun. I'd sit and debate them for hours. I always led them into arguments that they could not defend or answer without turning to an argument asking me to believe in pretend stuff. I always had answers for their questions about morality, beauty, and meaning. They never changed my mind nor I theirs, as far as I know. One incident was entirely fin though. I was an art student and lived with my girlfriend and another female friend. We'd wake up on the weekend and stumble into the living room in our undies to watch TV while consuming our favorite sugar encrusted grain product with milk. At this point I had a spiky punk hair-do and was a skinny dude and have been told that I was scary, even at an art school. The JWs knocked on the door and started giving me their "good message". I opened the door so they could see my roomates and said "Hello,  I am Satan and you are welcome to enter my den of iniquity." They hastily declined and I never saw them at that address again.

As for all the Obama Messiah posturing from the Right... Meh. No one I know on the Left even comes close to that. Even during his campaign there were always issues that even his most ardent supporters were not happy with. I think most on the left view Obama with "eyes wide open". I have been critical of many of his policies, yet generally think the guy is doing a great job! And I am guessing that since every lefty isn't employed yet, that his ability to raise the dead economy is going to take work and patience, not Holy intervention. The reason I think that there is a tendency towards this kind of fanatical viewing of him, is that his predecessor was SO bad that even if the guy were only mildly competent, he'd seem like a genius!

When the Jehovas come a knocking, which is at least once a week, I am cordial,but,I do move them along.  When they repeat and repeat, I eventually will say that I am a practicing wiccan, and to please leave my property. Now, when they are in the neighborhood, they avoid my house, and will go on to all the neighbors houses.

I am not a wiccan,but,it gets the point across. It's the whole Bernie Frank,table arguement, thing. I just do not have the patience for it.

As far as the Messiah references, never thought of Obama as a Messiah,I do not believe in them to begin with.
He is a smart man with some good ideas,after having seen the last 8 yrs. of ineptitude and lies, and distortion, and lies, and make believe, and lies, the last thing this country needed was another 4yrs. of inepti-Bushitude. Plus the thought of Sarah Palin, one step away from running the joint, uhhh, have to put that thought away, my ovaries are cringing just thinking about it.

I have only heard the Right wing refer to him in that way, whether in jest or not, I have no idea, they are serious here in Redneck town, the whole drinking kool-aid, to me is deragatory, and yes I do know what it refers to. If you listen to what the neo-cons say here, when they talk about the country and our Commander-in-Chief, It's all about the color of his skin, nothing more.

The limited  small pockets of dittohead-loving, Beck-ie following,Sarah lusting,neo's,could be said to be drinking their own kool-aid, made from fear and lies, and fright, and that that the "Messiah" they worship and love the most, isn't Jesus, It's the color white.  

Thanks for the well-wishes, folks.

I had a nice, hour-long chat with the company's Director of Operations on Friday.  He let me know at the outset that this was to be considered a "first interview" and that it would probably be after the first of the year before anything else happens.

He did ask me to e-mail some professional references, so I'll take that as a good sign.

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As far as anyone on "the left" calling President Obama "the Messiah," nah.  Never heard it.  Only the right-wing media bitterly spitting out their sour grapes have done this.

Although, apparently there was one micro-second this past spring where someone on an MSNBC talking-head show made the statement that "Obama is [like?] God" but I have no idea what the context was.  Anybody remember that or know more about it?

Thanks for the responses, guys.  Please, feel free to discuss further.  

(Am particularly interested as to what MR. FRENCH has in mind!)

No major essays forthcoming, Craig, just observations.

I'm not very tolerant of god salesmen. Not that I have a reason to be dickish, but I'm pretty set in my beliefs. There have been reasons to modify them slightly over time - enough "coincidences" have occurred in this lifecycle for me to wonder how this whole cosmic combo plate works, just who's the rice and who's the beans - but I'm resolved there's no Cosmic Daddy In The Sky, so they're wasting their time and mine.

I'm fine with them believing whatever they do; if it gets them through life, doesn't do damage to the world at large and there's no attempt to mandate a state religion, fine. Just leave me out of it. If they want to discuss something beyond god, maybe we can get somewhere... but I have to get over the suit and tie appearance first; show up in jeans with a six-pack of non-crap beer (Duvel would be an excellent choice) and you'll get at least a few minutes' attention.
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The whole "you guys think Obama's the freakin' messiah, don'cha?!?!" routine cracks me up (recall our early troll whose name we've shrunk to OPSOTE). I keep getting this idea that the most rabid conservatives do projection without realization - they do the whole fawning man-love thing for their heroes, so they assume "we" do the same. I keep hammering the phrase Binary Absolutism because that's what I see - it's all A or B with those clowns. We loathe Bush, they love him; therefore, since they loathe Obama, we must love him to bits.

I think they started the "messiah" routine, actually; take a quote - probably out of context - and push it, broadcast it, shove it down the media's collective throat 'til it's "conventional wisdom," then build on the now-settled wisdom. Obama often does come across a bit aloof and serious, but compared to the Fake Ranch-er in Chief we used to have - Texas accent up to 11 on a daily basis - he appears positively, um... well, presidential.

And let's not get started on their fawning obeisance to Saint Ronnie of California; now there's hero worship pushed to the Nth degree. Most of us will bitch about Obama drifting right, towards centrism and beyond - but good luck finding a party-line GOP or right-wing operative who'll trash-talk Ronbo.
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Glad the interview went well, Craig; not only the references request, but a full hour interview would make me think they're interested, at the least. Sorry you have to hang on tenterhooks 'til January, but still it sounds positive. Continued good luck, sir.