On August 26th, 2009 at 1:41 pm, chapoutier said:

Yup.

Done.

Are you sure you want to take that one?

Yup.

On August 26th, 2009 at 1:31 pm, chapoutier said:

Get back to me if, on Christmas, Obama does not make a similar video taped statement.

Are you sure you want to take that one?

Feel free to dismiss the importance of this contrast.

Feel free to explain to me how this undermines my point.

But I will bite. The National Day of Prayer is a political contrivance. Ramadan is an actual religious holiday. Get back to me if, on Christmas, Obama does not make a similar video taped statement.

Feel free to dismiss the importance of this contrast.

BTW, that “point” doesn’t seem irrelevant to me. In fact, I doubt either issue was considered irrelevant by the Obama admin.

I consider it irrelevant to the extent of interpreting the word “said” as used in a casual blog post.

No doubt there are all sorts of scheming and deliberations on whether or not to “say” something through oral or written means.

chapoutier, waste a bit more time and ask yourself if tre was referring to this point.

What point is that? That groups were unhappy that he wasn’t having a public ceremony?

The more I read tre’s original comment in total context, along with the comment he was referring to Obama allegedly saying nothing about the National Day of Prayer. Not the HuffPoers. Which makes more sense:

Bob was happy that Joe spoke about apples and Bob was silent about oranges.

or

Bob was happy that Joe spoke about apples and that Joe said nothing about oranges.

To me it seems clear he was setting up a comparison of Obama’s behavior.

But, as I said, in either case tre was ill informed.

I do not believe I was mistaken in my original interpretation. And even if you were right, “those crazies” on Huff Po had tons of posts about the National Day of Prayer. That took all of 5 seconds of googling to prove wrong.

And I don’t care whether or not it was verbal or written. That seems absolutely irrelevant to me except in the most pedantic sense.

Actually, I don’t really care one whit about the National Day of Prayer. I think it is a dumb idea. So I don’t know why I am investing any energy into this.

On August 25th, 2009 at 6:33 pm, chapoutier said:

Good lord. That took all of two seconds of googling to prove wrong.

I took another look at this.

Actually, he’s correct even if he meant that Obama said nothing for the National Day of Prayer.

Obama merely issued a written statement for the National Day of Prayer. Obama made a verbal (video) statement about Ramadan.