Wonderful things & speaking ill

Yes, it is BOING BOING! They call themselves "A Directory of Wonderful Things." This site is one of those internet time sinks where you say to yourself "what's up on Boing Boing?" and an hour later you have forgotten why you sat at the computer table. My hook this a.m. was the article about the death of the "Reverend" Jerry Falwell. I'm not sure it qualifies as "wonderful" to speak ill of the dead, but the "Rev." Falwell was an unusually polarizing character. I have a hard time assigning the title of "Rev." to someone who made a career of attacking people and cloaking his viciousness in the "respectability" of the cloth, but there it is. He was called "Reverend" and held three honorary doctorates in addition to a degree from a Baptist college. I'm an atheist myself, and that makes me a member of a distinct minority, a group of people who are classified by their "not-belief" as opposed to their belief. I mean, are you an "a-socialist" if you are a capitalist? Am I an "a-Dodger fan" because I root for the Giants? Ridiculous. I choose not to swallow the peculiar mythology of our culture, namely, the fellow on The Cross being a God, and suddenly I'm an "a-theist." Fine. I prefer to think of myself as rational. If you think there's an omniscient, immortal, all-powerful being somewhere who gives a flying fuck about your tiny little life (and who cares about everyone else, too, and manages to run the entire universe on the side) then more power to you. You and Jerry can have a grand old time sippin' Margaritas with JC, St. Pete & the Bhoyos when you get to wherever you get to when the rest of us are worm food. If heaven is where fuckers like Falwell wind up, I'm happy to wind up somewhere else. Life is wonderful.
a.d. XVI Kal. Iun.