On the 4th, I was at a cocktail party and had a very interesting conversation with the host, a man in his 80's and failing health. To my discomfort, he quickly turned our genial conversation to both politics and religion, putting me on the spot, as it were, as I was not going to engage in a serious debate in such a setting. After extolling the virtues of of his faith, he went on to tell me that the solution to the problems in the Middle East was genocide. He didn't use that word, but he advocated surrounding the region in a fence and nuking the place to pre-biblical times. Those were his words. Oh! how I wanted to rant about the disconnect between his prophet's teachings and what he was advocating. But out of social decourm I eventually excused myself to the restroom, where I practiced a minute of deep breathing and went back out to thank my host for a nice party, and got out of there.

He feared for the future of the United States if our current president is voted a second term. I worry that our country is slipping into the dark ages of superstition and ignorance of science. Other countries, not shackled by the fear of fact, will lap us several times in the race to the future.

I'm all for a presidential debate on scientific issues. But it will never happen. Almost half of this country does not believe in evolution. They actually think that dinosaurs and humans lived together. Now that scares me.

"A is A." I've talked with many who are reading that crap from Rand for the first time and not groking what Objectivism espouses. They'll cherry pick the hell out of that, too, only quoting the anti-goverment rhetoric. When I tell them that the philosophy rejects all religion - becuase it is not fact - their eyes glaze over, and the conversation is over.

...sigh....