Gimme a pack of Marlboros, a case of Bud lite, and a Presbyterian sermon.

My husband got fed up with something he heard at a graduate class last night. Something or other about how there is a fundy movement to get people to move to South Carolina so that they can get fundy representation in Congress and push for their own separate state, and if that wasn't granted they would secede?! Anyone hear about this, or is it grad students freaking out in the ivory tower? I had heard about fundies wanting to move to SC, sort of like forcible redistricting. Don't know what's so hot about SC, though, looks like there would be fundier places than that. Maybe it's the spirit of revolt or something.

Anyhoo, he got into one of his rants and said that if he were dictator (which he would never be, and if he was *I* would be the first to secede), he would regulate religion like the government regulates drugs. He says that just as some drugs like cigarettes and alcohol aren't great for you but not the worst, those religions would be regulated but not banned. He named the Presbyterians, Quakers and Episcopals as the tobacco and beer of religions. Other religions he says are like crack and heroin--BAD--and should therefore be banned off the face of the earth. He lists Pentecostals, Baptists, 7th Day Adventists, Jay-Dubs, Catholics for their general coming in and mucking with politics, and several others as the crack, heroin, "junk" if you will of religions. Methodists he says are pushing it, but they would be regulated--and closely watched. Mormons would be allowed by special permit only. Declared Atheists would get a tax break.

I thought I would die laughing.

--Virgil