Learning something new about a person you’ve liked for a long time makes it good to have got up on a regular Sunday morning… and getting information at church, of all places, that makes you glad you came to the meeting, is another reason to be glad you got up on a regular Sunday morning.  This morning I learned that Al Franken and Stuart Smalley, yep, that guy who made us laugh in the Saturday Night Live skits, are the same person.  The real one is Al Franken, the Democratic Senator from Minnesota.  Maybe almost everybody else knew they were one and the same, but I didn’t know it.  Time checking out Al Franken on Wikipedia is well spent.  I’m glad I looked.

I have liked Senator Al Franken since he went to bat for working people by advocating for an increase in the federal minimum wage, and he makes good sense in his argument for higher taxes on wealthy citizens.  I liked him for voting to repeal “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” which barred openly gay men and women from serving in the military.  I like him for supporting same-sex marriage.  He has been an active supporter of gun control, and he has been active in the effort to get health care for all Americans. I liked him for laughing out loud when he heard that President Trump tweeted that former President Obama had “wiretapped” his phone in Trump Tower just before the election.  Trump’s Tweet said, “I’d bet a good lawyer could make a great case out of the fact that President Obama was tapping my phones in October, just prior to election!” 

Of course, it is NOT a fact that the former president had tapped the Trump phones…  What next?