Living in Texas, watching Tom DeLay ruin my state, I never thought it would end this way, Tom QUIT. I would have, I did believe, that he would fight to the bitter end. I actually relished the idea of watching him be beaten. Now, though, he will be able to think that he did the honorable thing. That sickens me. I wanted to beat him. I am glad he's gone, but like Saddam Hussien, he is not gone in a way that I would have preferred.

Damn him, even in losing, he ducks justice

Still, miracles are not to be questioned, and this is a miracle. DeLay will no longer disgrace the halls of Congress. Small Blessings.

Religion is a part of human society that will, eventually, evolve out of humanity like the tail we once had but now lose in the womb. Religion has allowed men to live in communities with shared purpose, it has controlled the masses, as Marx pointed out, and it has simplified existence for eons of humanity. It has also led to more murder and violence than any other human creation, which for me at least, outweighs any benefit that it may have brought with it. I have come to accept that in my lifetime religion will not be erased from the human experience, that people will continue to self-deceive themselves into horrific acts of violence in its name and that my own disbelief could someday put my own life at risk. Dawkins is leading the way to a brighter future, and I applaud him. The next great step in evolution will be the triumph of reason over religion, the alternative is the same as that faced by all creatures maladapted to their environment, extinction.

As a die hard college football fan, I couldn't agree more. But, the problem is not in the AD offices across the country, or in the Coaches' offices either. Well, not directly. The problem is the national championship setup, and the inequity of the game itself. If you had a playoff system, then there MIGHT be a way to win a national championship without going undefeated. Of course, to get into the playoffs, you would very likely need to be undeafeated, or close to it. But, if the top tier teams scheduled against each other only, they would not be able to do that, and those mid-level teams that you argue against playing would be playing each other, and some of them (Louisville, cough.) would get into the playoffs, only to be demolished by the top teir teams that were beating the other top tier teams.

The system is flawed at its core, as far as competitiveness is concerned. It is not designed for that, these are schools, not sports franchises, all of the money aside. As a Big 12 fan, I like playing Baylor and Iowa State, it's where my friends went to school, and the smaller, more personal rivalries are what make college football great, not the top game.

Which is not to say that a committee selected playoff system, like in basketball, would not be the shiznit. And would give us half a season of incredible games, games that you would schedule your life around.

The idea of training people to run the country based on lying about who you are and what you believe would only sound workable to people who come from the current right wing of American politics, God fearing or not. While this may be acceptable, or even the norm today, it is not the ideal of our country, and surely not ethical or moral.

I believe that a place like Patrick Henry or Regents should be ridiculed out of existence. They should not be able to be recognized by the accredation organizations of higher education, and employers should laugh at these degrees much as they would one from ACME University of Looney Tunes Land. There is no place for anyone who thinks that freedom means telling me to believe in their God in American politics. If you want to form a cult in Waco and wait for the Second Coming, just don't carry a lot of weapons and sleep with the 14 year olds in the group. If you want your cult to run my country, I am going to ridicule your beliefs for what they are, silly holdovers from a time best remembered for its cruelty and violence, not its peaceful and loving ways.

The infiltration of religion into politics in America, so bold faced and brash, is a response to the reality these holdouts of the first century find themselves in. The world is proving their beliefs wrong, and the only way to stop it, for them, is to take control and tell us all to stop progressing. I may not see it in my life, but they will fail. As surely as the Romans who believed in their gods, and the Greeks and Egyptians before them, the Christians will see their religion die out, and all I can hope for is that the rest of us learn from the history they want to ignore, and do not let them take our society with them into the dungheap of history.

A) They are not about Videos, and neither is MTV. It's a variety show, and Britney was the comedy act, even if she did not know it. Her appearance was horrific on two levels, first I've seen fast food employees with more interest in their job and second, there are truly talented singers out there, and she took one of their slots.

B) Alicia Keys was good. Damn Good. Real good. In any kind of sane world she would be the biggest star in music. But she is talented, hippy (and that's just fine BTW), and keeps her private life (and privates) to herself. That just doesn't make for good TV or Tabloids, and that is all our culture has become.

We deserve Britney, we are Britney.