I like really original excuses, and today’s the first time I’ve been able to use this one: No posting this morning because I was in surgery.

Nothing major, thankfully. Had a small growth removed. And the anesthesia certainly did it’s job – I was just about to ask “when are you getting started?” when they told me they were done. With any luck, they’ll tell me shortly, “Mr. Geraghty, we’ve determined it was a small wad of petrified Guinness.”

So I’m getting up to speed, but if you haven’t read it yet, my piece on religiously conservative voters in Iowa and South Carolina can be found here. When I set out to write the piece, I think I expected to find more doctrinal or ideological differences between the two groups of believers; instead, I think the differences between these two groups of voters is a reflection of the different political cultures of their states.

UPDATE: By the way, one of the nurses mentioned that she had just Googled Ron Paul to get more information on him. There’s a joke about that bit of news spurring a cry for more anasthesia in there somewhere, but I’m not even going to bother…