...Thank goodness for small favors. Oh wait, maybe that's a big favor.

I'll say it here - I sanitized it on the Wagon - I cheered when I heard he was dead (come on, some others of you did too, admit it). I didn't just say "Good", I said "Hooray, yay, that's one less bigot on the face of the earth."

Hey, aren't all the evil established televangelists getting old? Oral Roberts, Pat Robertson, Billy Graham, Jim Bakker - none of them are spring chickens any longer. We should hear about them giving up the ghost soon. There is that old rule about people dying in threes... maybe we could extend that to all of them?

Yes, I am sounding rather... dark and twisty this morning aren't I? Well, these are dark and twisty people I'm talking about. One of them is trying to convince everyone that if he doesn't raise a bunch of money by a certain point, God "will call (him) home". Fine, take him away. Take them all away to wherever they need to go.

I doubt, however, that Falwell is going to anyplace that someone would be proud to spend the afterlife in. That man was evil - he was a bigot, he was discriminatory in his remarks, he tried to point the finger of blame for 9/11 at groups be didn't think should exist: gays, feminists, abortionists, pagans... he actually had the balls to say that it is their fault it happened.

It's the fault of some crazy guy who was trying to make a statement about his hatred for the United States as a whole, not because of a couple of groups of people. I had no respect for Falwell (or any televangelist for that matter) at that point, I started hating him for being an evil bigot on that day. Falwell was an embarrassment to the church on a good day, he was downright harmful when he opened his mouth about politics and the state of the United States.

Someone on one of the boards quoted her husband "Falwell ruined politics". Absolutely. Him and his Moral Majority who worked the political scene and supposedly helped Presidents get elected. Last night I was watching the news and they gave the Moral Majority credit for helping get the two Bush Presidents elected, and Ronald Reagan. And that's when I had my "aha!" moment. Now I remembered why, for all these years, I hated Ronald Reagan.

It wasn't Reaganomics, it wasn't calling Nancy "Mommy", it wasn't his 11th hour save of the hostages in Iran (which was put into motion before he was sworn in). It wasn't "Star Wars" or Iran-Contra issues. It was the fact that he was supported by the Moral Majority and was happy with them. It was his association with Falwell that ticked me off, even as an 10 year old kid. I knew that the "religious right" (as they've come to be referred to in the Bush eras) weren't the actual pulse of American thinking, and I always believed in the separation of Church and State. Government has no place in religion, and religion has no place in the government, in my opinion. But having someone like Falwell (or the others) who are persuasive enough to convince people that the right candidate is the one that believes like they do is dangerous.

I'm not saying that a religious leader can't endorse a candidate, but the candidate shouldn't really acknowledge that endorsement and use it to a political advantage. It's not about what someone believes about God or how people should morally lead their lives that should get them elected. The candidates should be getting elected because of what platform or vision for the United States they have, not for their affiliation with some evangelist that thinks freedom of speech should be restricted, or because feminists need to be thrown back into the kitchen barefoot and pregnant, or because some purple puppet on a kids show is going to influence a generation to be gay.

I'm getting off my soapbox now because I'm getting riled up writing his. Falwell is dead, ding dong the witch is dead. Thank goodness. Now, who's next?