“Today in church I was ready to walk out. During the petitions, they didn’t simply say ‘We pray for our troops in harm’s way.’ I certainly do pray for people in harm’s way, because however much I may take issue with the policies, however much I may wish a person would see through certain lies, none of that justifies even a single drop of blood. So I certainly do pray for them. Still, the petitioner had to go further: ‘We pray for our troops, who have bravely volunteered to defend our freedom.’ Look, I’m in a building devoted to the Prince of Peace, the long-haired hippie who preached peace and love, and I do not want smoke blown up my ass about how a pointless war is making me free. It isn’t. The people in the war are decent people and I want peace and freedom and safety for them (and everybody else in the war zone) but I am not going to stand there and gush about things that just aren’t so. There is indeed a Biblical figure who would gush about how war is freedom, but it isn’t the guy who wound up on the cross.” (10/05/08)