That there is a man with no conscience whatsoever, someone completely lacking in one of the most important ingredients in what makes one a human being. You cannot choose to be this evil, this person lacks something vital.

He should be put in a museum. He is worse than Hitler. Seriously. There are millions of Hitlers out there, its just that most of them never achieve enough power to put their evil in motion. But Hitler loved children and doggies. He didn’t systematically rape, torture, and murder, his own children, over a period of years, this is an evil, a personal evil of unbelievable magntitude.

But I cannot feel righteous rage, I am never, ever one who indulges revenge fantasies and says “I am usually against the death penalty, but they should torture the guy to death.” In the face of this example of the depths of human, or I should say, inhuman, depravity, that response is cheap and easy.

This calls for serious thought. Its mind-jarring, really is, makes me start rethinking lots of things, about good and evil, and such. This is evil. I never really beleived in evil, you see, I always thought that there was disease, mistake, misperception, mental illness, stupid but good intentions run amock, momentary rages, stupidity, but I never really believed in EVIL. Was this that kind of evil, where you have to start re-thinking your very definitions of good and evil?

My first wife was a presbyterian, and I attended some services, and I was struck by this intangible mood, that was a major difference from catholic masses I remember from my childhood. The difference was that the overall message was “we are great, thats why God loves us.” Stark contrast from the catholic message, “you suck, you are inherently sinful, you should be grateful God loves you despite all that.” Many catholics only take from this a message of guilt, but I never did, it was more like, “hey, we are all sinners, don’t beat up on yourself, just try to do better.”

As a cynic I am more in agreement with the view people have to constantly fight against the default position of being a selfish asshole.

@Promnight: Hey, hey! Yeah, things are so much better. I’m not out of the woods completely, but like my next husband Bear Grylls says on “Man vs. Wild,” you just have to keep moving to find rescue, and even minor things like a small fire in your makeshift camp can do wonders to boost your morale, and you need to keep positive to save your ass when find yourself stuck in a Florida swamp with alligators or whatever. Not to belabor the already belabored point, but Bear Grylls is a non-cheesy motivational speaker, even if the filming of some of his survivor skills are staged. (And yes, I love Survivorman, too, and I am not on Team Bear vs Team Les.) Anyhoo…it absofuckinlutely KILLS me when I’m at work and not able to comment, then I come home, take my meds and am rendered comatose within 45 minutes and miss the later comments. It’s like I keep missing a train. Everyday. I get to the station just in time to see that damned train pull out. Everyday!

@redmanlaw: And that was a totally reasonable and rational decision. My whole thing was:

1. Are the local public schools good? I asked the admissions officers where the professors sent their kids to school — public or private.

2. Is there housing for students with kids?

3. Are you gonna help me pay my tuition?

4. Will I be able to find a job when I get outta here?

5. Is the campus nice?

6. How’s the year-round weather?