In my home town my last name is revered or sneered at, depending on where you sit. From the sofa inside the compound we look to be barbarians, backstabbing and cheating one another at every opportunity. From the church pew, the neighborhood business association folding chairs and the driver's seat, we seem kind and charitable.

Dad, the good doctor "from the old country" and Mom, the generous nurse, gave free care to the needy, doled out food to the homeless and went to church every Sunday. They also blockaded Planned Parenthood clinics, gave loads of money to the IRA, to anti-Semitic, racist organizations and openly railed against anyone who isn't white, Roman Catholic (the One True Faith).

My brothers have been investigated for racketeering, extortion and fraud. My sister, who works for the city, making a lot more than I do, is a member of anti-tax and anti-immigration groups. My aunt writes op-ed pieces calling for proof of President Obama's citizenship.

If this behavior were not enough to make them ideologically despicable and morally bankrupt, in conversation they use racist epithets, insult everyone in a way that makes Don Rickles seem gentle, and generally behave in a manner that would embarrass the grottiest lowlife. Finding safety in numbers and relying on the politeness of those who disagree, my family is as likely to behave badly in public as in private. They can also be quite entertaining.

We are Bill O'Reilly cloned, replicated, multiplied, dimmed and dumbed down. Yes, dumbed down to simple sentences like, "It's a scientific fact, black people are just not smart." and "If science (sic) is so smart, what about colds?"

When medical costs forced me out of my apartment, I took a place in a family residence. I'm doing all I can to get out from under because lying awake at night imagining what is being done in my name is too high a price for a roof over my head.

Rides in fancy cars and expensive gifts are bribes. They do not signify generosity, they buy acquiesence. Every gift I've accepted from my family relies on some cruelty, whether it came from stolen money or pressure applied to the owner of a resort, it's a cheat. As uncomfortable as it's been to refuse things I'd like, it's more uncomfortable to accept them because I become ever so slightly complicit in the evil that made the gift available.

I do not engage any of the idiots if I can help it, and avoid them as much as possible. However, there are situations where conflict is inevitable. Yelling at my brother is as effective as yelling at Rush Limbaugh, so I have learned to become a nimble thinker undermining their comments with dismissive asides. Everyplace is their territory, because bullies turn everything into a schoolyard replete with the quiet accommodation of people who should know better than to placate the cruel.

I don't have to look at Ann Coulter across a Thanksgiving dinner table, but I do have to look at my sister who prays for "the conversion of the Jews", for "the beautiful babies that will be aborted," that people who provide, assist or have abortions be brought to justice on earth then burn in hell and before giving thanks to God for the meal. I carry antacids. Or, better yet, I give thanks for having dinner with kinder people.

The poor get computers; the rich get teachers.

It's already happening. We talk about the importance of education to a viable democracy, to self sufficiency, but we don't really invest in it, in our citizens, because there's no obvious profit in it, other than for the publishers and IT companies who sell stuff to schools and students.

Really, what good is it for someone to have critical thinking skills, or be able to discuss how economics affects health care systems? We might get upset and act as if we could create solutions, so best not to teach that. If knowing astronomy kills off superstitious astrology, that just leaves frustrated people examining at their own lives and the role of politicians and corporate leaders instead of cosmic forces that prescribe their income outlook. No, better to keep ignorance alive by subtle manipulation.

Now people, here's an on-line course - from (a licensed product of) Harvard! - that's just as good as having a well read teacher in the room, actually engaging, making the material come alive.

Terry Eagleton has spent his career illustrating the contradiction between Christian theology and capitalism. This latest venture comes at the same issue from a slightly different angle. However, the core problem of considering how faith supports reason remains constant.

Whether conducting an experiment or debating a philosophy, on some level one has to give over to the unknowable. We didn't know blood carried oxygen, we had to ask ourselves what is it we can't see and whether what we can't see is knowable. The problem with any religion is that faith requires that examination stop at unknowable and settle into an unapproachable deity. Pluralism, in this case the separation of reason from faith, is an inherent limitation to western thought.

Dawkins, Hitchens and evangelicals are easy targets. By aiming at them Eageton and others miss the fact that because so few people examine their beliefs, people are easily manipulated by those in power. This is the Marxist perspective applied to theology, Eagleton's stock in trade.