Spiritual Super PACs

Practically May-like today. A warm sun was out, crocuses bloomed, and a few insects buzzed around my face.

Yesterday I passed through a nearby suburban train station and took a look at the give-away book rack, to see if there was anything beyond the usual bodice-rippers. There was -- a thin volume called The Next President. Subtitle: "Spiritual interviews with the Guardian Spirits of Newt Gingrich, Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum." By one Ryuho Okawa, published by Happy Science Publishing.

Time to go to Wiki: "Happy Science (幸福の科学, Kōfuku-no-Kagaku?) is a new religious and spiritual movement founded in Japan on 6 October 1986 by Ryuho Okawa with over 12 million followers in 85 countries [citation needed]."

By golly, it's a cult -- I mean, new Japanese religion, one of a multitude -- with an inside track into the guardian spirits of Republican U.S. presidential candidates. Wonder how those interviews were set up. Do you contact the spirit's celestial PR firm first?

Why doesn't Ron Paul rate a guardian spirit interview? I can't imagine that the guardians are public entities, so consulting them doesn't go against the philosophy of libertarianism. Maybe to show his independence, Rep. Paul turned down help from the spirit world. Stranger things have happened this campaign season.