Sidney Blumenthal's eloquent, incisive look at Bush is a masterpiece! How the Republicans can back Bush is the question. This president would seem to have even broken with Republican traditions with his not-so-tacit attack on a basic tenet in our constitution---the separation of church and state. Additionally and without batting an eye, he blithely encourages Congress to pass legislation so that we can torture suspects. This blatant assault on the Geneva Conventions goes beyond the pale. It is not outrageous to view him a renegade, except that his party backs him, so this tells me that Republican values always were this nasty and Bush has simply given them permission to act on their baser instincts. Actually, nothing he has done should be so surprising. His vicious attacks on members of his own party in his rise to power should have warned us that he is basically a thug with no core values serving as a brake.

It is terribly frightening to me, and it must be to the rest of the world, that a president of the United States can so easily cast aside the boundaries of common decency. He has eroded the conscience of America and I am ashamed for us and appalled.

Finally, in all the muck, there is a bit of news that lifts my depression over America sliding down the slimy slope of torture. Clinton comes through to give America a better global image. Good for him!

The arguments of Richard Dawkins are both seductive and completely irritating. He bandies about such terms as stupid, delusional, child abuse, and evil to characterize religious thought while offering very compelling, beautifully worded arguments which make a great deal of sense. Perhaps he is trying to stir up interest in his books so that people will buy them. Or it could be he is a purist to the core and can't be bothered with worrying about offending the unwashed unscientific. His manner makes me uncomfortable because his intolerance has political ramifications, particularly in this country where the religious right has managed to get a firm foothold in our government.

The belief that acceptance of evolution leads to atheism is a lure which right wing religious forces use to keep it out of our schools. It is not just the teaching of evolution that is a stake...it is all manner of freedoms which come under fire from the zealots. This is scary, and they should not be furthered in promoting their agenda. For above all, man is a political animal, probably before he is a religious animal, and any atheistic spokesperson should use respectful terminology when describing his adversaries. Dawkins is patently offensive and this makes him a political liability.

Many claim we are hardwired to be religious... and if that is so, then why do so many of us not believe when we have been reared to believe. Is it because we have been taught evolution? Great numbers of us began to question before we even heard the term evolution. We were bothered with various thoughts about religion...there were just too many inconsistencies, too many different religions, too many different beliefs for us to accept that one religious belief is correct. And because there are mysteries, it may be impossible for many of us to decide that absolutely there can be no God. Therefore, we settled on being agnostic rather than atheistic. It is our lot not to know everything, like it or not.

Still, with all that, I enjoy these articles about Dawkins!

What sticks in my craw about Hillary is her support of the Iraq debacle. Perhaps she had to vote for it for political reasons and that does soothe my rumpled feelings a little, but it was such a monumental blunder to go into that country...and so many of us knew it at the time. I guess the question here is whether it would have been political suicide for her to be against the war. And that may have been true in New York. Still, it is very hard to forgive blatant pandering of this nature. I expect firm leadership on certain issues, going to war being one of them, but at the same time, I don't want Democratic politicians committing political suicide either.

If she is the candidate, I would, of course, vote for her; however, I would just as soon have a candidate without so much baggage. On top of that, I am not convinced that America is ready for a woman president. So much is at stake...surely, there is some other Democrat who is appealing and charismatic.