Every time this debate comes up I am reminded of my own Hebrew school teacher, Rabbi Dvorak. My classmates and I were all 8th graders in a local public school, studying the basic roots of evolutionary theory, and drawing little maps of Darwin's trips through the Galapagos for extra credit. We were also going to Hebrew school in the evenings in preparation for our Bar and Bat Mitzvahs, and in our desire to find our religious identity with that significant event decided, as a group, to ask the Rabbi what he thought of this most incontrovertible evidence that was clearly so fundamental to science and knowledge.

The Rabbi's answer? "The Torah only says God created the all the animals in one day. But God can also decide how long a day is. Maybe a day is 1.8 million years. Maybe in that day we have the inception and extinction of species. Maybe that period was called one day. It's God's choice. They're his words. What we use to count back the years belong to man, and the way man measures time. There's no rule that God has to measure time in the same way."

I'm not religious anymore, and I don't subscribe to much of what I learned in Rabbi Dvorak's classes. But I have to admire him for his theology, his faith, and his intelligence. And I have to wonder why this simple, uncontroversial, easily reconcilable viewpoint hasn't been espoused by more religious leaders.

Although I've had a few friends stupid enough to get embroiled in abusive relationships. And we all know the adage about bringing the horse to water.

After a point you friends know what you think. If you're not lying they'll know whether or not you think they're partner is an abusive jerk.

And once they know that, and they know WHY I think that, the onus is on them to leave. And if they don't? Well, I do. I don't see the point of having stupid friends who make stupid choices. It's personally demoralizing. And I'm just not very tolerant of having the same conversation over and over again.

Except for a few truly absurd situations every friend I've told "I'm done hearing about your asshole boyfriend. It's boring. He acts like an ass, and you call me crying in the middle of the night. I don't need to hear this any more than you need to live it. Either leave him and move on, or stop calling me, because at this point there isn't anything new I can tell you. If you stick around for more you clearly want to be treated like shit, and don't think you're worth more than that. And I'm not friends with people who put up with that sort of drama." has left the asshole boyfriend (or girlfriend, as it happened in a couple of cases). Some took longer to move on than others, but they all called me when they were ready to cut the ties.

At which point I was more than happy to be their friend again. I like having strong friends who can stand up for themselves. At that point I'll stand up with 'em. That usually works.