I've always been curious about the character of Satan in Christianity. Why? Mainly because the Bible demonizes Satan (no pun intended) without ever letting Satan explain his side of the story, in his own words. The Bible claims to be The Truth, but it only gives us one side of…
Osama bin Ladin must be laughing his ass off. Not only is he still on the loose, but, for the cost of a couple of dozen box cutters and flight lessons for a half-dozen suicidal volunteers, he's made the U.S. the laughing stock of the entire planet. Of course, he…
This month's proposed bail-out of Wall Street financial institutions has gotten me thinking about socialism -- in particular, the knee-jerk reaction that some conservative Americans express whenever the word is mentioned. They say, "Oh, we can't have nationalized healthcare because that would be socialism," as if the word alone makes…
Watching the speeches, interviews and television advertisements of McCain & Palin, I've noticed that all they ever talk about is their past achievements, most of which are carefully and heavily embellished to take credit where little or none is due. Palin's claim to have "canceled the bridge to nowhere," when…
If you've ever read the book of Genesis in the Bible, and exercised at least a little bit of skepticism, you might have noticed that the Official Creation Story contains several conspicuous omissions. I've already discussed one of them -- the strange case of the Tree of the Knowledge --…