Matt ... totally understand the angst mate. It hits us all at times and I too feel like taking direct action against the religion that has stripped my family of its own identity. It's why I DO get very loud and very vocal when someone is stupid enough to try and push their religion on my kids .... and that's ALL religions not just the one my family has been tainted with.

We don't have Thanksgiving here in Australia ........ but we have had Remembrance Day (Nov 11) like other countries no doubt celebrate too. I've always felt so sad on that day and our ANZAC Day (April 25 each year) ...... because until I stopped going to meetings, I had to keep my thoughts about the lost soldiers, sailors and airmen and women who lost their lives or whose lives changed irrevocably from participating in the various wars around our world. Celebrating violence is what I was told ANZAC Day and Remembrance Day is all about ... Armistice Day was another 'pagan' or 'war mongering' celebration. Yet for the average jdub who lives in my country ...... our lives would have been very different altogether had our own military people not protected our country and other allied countries ...... and the 'religious freedom' the average jdub bangs on about (often claiming THEY are the main instigators of said freedom) ... would NOT be part of their every day life had the despots and dictators of the world won the wars!

The jdubs spouting anything at all these days ... do so from fear, from guilt and most of all ... from habit.

"Life is too short to spend with people who suck the happiness out of you!"