A quote from the Bishop of Oxford, when talking about the oddness of the (almost exclusively American) anti-evolution movement:

God doesn’t just make the world, he does something much more wonderful. He makes the world make itself.

I don’t think I’ve ever hear anyone put quite such an elegant theological touch to this largely inelegant “debate”.   Here is the video; it’s worth watching.

My first school, Virginia Tech had the worst mass-shooting at a college in American history this morning.   Obviously everyone I knew as a student there has moved on, but it’s still a horrible feeling.   I remember staying in the dorm of the first shooting during my freshman orientation, and had more than few classes in Norris, and it’s just impossible to imagine someone hating the people or the place strong enough to do something like this.   Tech is a fantastic school with a wonderful student body and and absolutely beautiful campus.   Why some people feel the need to destroy the good in this world, when there is already so much evil, I’ll never understand.

Click here for more information.

Please, if you know crazy, hateful people, get them help.   Tell them they’re wrong for blaming others for their problems, and that hurting random strangers isn’t going to bring them the peace, serenity and sense of purpose they desire.   Tell them if they don’t like their life, they should work to change it.   Tell them that regardless of circumstances, they and they alone are responsible for the acts they commit in this world.   And above all else, tell them that if they do punish others for their own inadequacies, they don’t deserve an end as simple as death.

Derek Anderson

P.S. This has to be one of the most retarded, narcissistic collections of rants I have ever heard.

On November 14th, 2003, Justice Roy Moore was removed from his post as Chief Justice of Alabama by a unanimous decision of the state Court of the Judiciary. The Court found that he had “willfully and publicly” flouted a court order to remove a monument from the state judicial building, placing himself in contempt of the federal court which had ordered the removal, thereby also breaking his oath of office. In the word of the Judiciary Presiding Judge William Thompson, “the chief justice placed himself above the law.”

Whether or not you believe the Ten Commandments should be displayed in a state court house, Roy Moore was clearly wrong in defying the superior court order. But let’s look at the greater issue: (more…)

This election has made me realize just how far outside the mainstream I must be. It is difficult to conceive the majority of Americans supporting Bush this election. Not when the democrats had a good man, weren’t massively outspent and Bush was a known quantity with a lackluster record. So difficult, in fact, that I’m almost willing to suspect some kind of mass-psychosis. But I know it’s not true.

The ideals I grew up with: that ethnic, cultural and religious diversity are good and promote a stronger, healthier society. That the personal freedoms of others take precedence over my beliefs as to how they should live their lives. That a person CAN be moral without having to appeal to the approval of a given religious institution. They just aren’t held by the majority of Americans. It’s not that America was tricked or mislead; the majority, from my current vantage point, just seems to be the same xenophobic, homophobic, illogical, bible/koran-thumping, fear-mongering, reactionary mass as the rest of the world.

And people like me are the one’s who are different. I’m in the minority.

I love this country dearly. But I’m losing faith that America has that something unique. Something intangible that separates us from the rest of this crazy, messed up, hateful, intolerant world. I fear this country has become drunk on its own power and self-righteousness, and is leading down the same path as every other superpower in the history of mankind.

And that there isn’t anything I can do about it.