Salaam Alaikum, Cousin

Twice in the past week, while paging through the Star Tribune, I did a double take when perusing articles about the situation in Syria.


What was our former governor and newly minted presidential candidate Tim Pawlenty saying about Syria that was news-worthy?


Oh, wait -- it's not Pawlenty, it's Bashar Assad, hereditary leader of Syria and long-lost cousin of TPaw. Side by side and feature for feature, I admit the resemblance is not as strong as I thought it was, but the similarity of visual gestalts was enough to confuse me.

And that's Minnesota me, who's been looking at pictures of Pawlenty for over eight years. If I get the two mixed up, what will others think? Is this the beginning of rumors that Pawlenty is a secret Muslim?