My niece Klara and nephew Caleb at a family friend’s wedding last weekend

Because I am a journalist and my contact information is splashed across news media directories worldwide, I get a lot of crackpot kind of emails. The latest comes from a man who’s appalled that John McCain recently met with the Dalai Lama and addressed him as “your Holiness.” “With his right hand,” declared the email writer, “John McCain confessed his Buddhist faith.” From his letter, you’d think Buddhism to be a four-letter word.

Yeah… crackpot emails generally don’t work, but they are even less effective when you send them to a reporter who’s also one of those Buddhists.