“There will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.”

San Diego’s Republican mayor speaks surprisingly, and movingly, in support of gay marriage:

If that’s not a turnabout eniough, the Moustache of Understanding himself, millionaire economic columnist and pundit Tom Friedman, has finally spoken out against Guantanamo and the US’ implementation of the War on Terror. I get the impression he’s seen or heard or been told something that made the blinkers fall off.

9/11 has made us stupid. I honor, and weep for, all those murdered on that day. But our reaction to 9/11 — mine included — has knocked America completely out of balance, and it is time to get things right again.

It is not that I thought we had new enemies that day and now I don’t. Yes, in the wake of 9/11, we need new precautions, new barriers. But we also need our old habits and sense of openness. For me, the candidate of 9/12 is the one who will not only understand who our enemies are, but who we are.

Before 9/11, the world thought America’s slogan was: “Where anything is possible for anybody.” But that is not our global brand anymore. Our government has been exporting fear, not hope: “Give me your tired, your poor and your fingerprints.”

You may think Guantánamo Bay is a prison camp in Cuba for Al Qaeda terrorists. A lot of the world thinks it’s a place we send visitors who don’t give the right answers at immigration. I will not vote for any candidate who is not committed to dismantling Guantánamo Bay and replacing it with a free field hospital for poor Cubans. Guantánamo Bay is the anti-Statue of Liberty.

I wonder what it was that affected him so much?