Final update: Since there seem to be a number of people linking to this piece from around the web, I thought I would rework it into a final version. Thanks again to all those who have taken the time to respond, both here and elsewhere.

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I am an atheist and a professor at Virginia Tech. Dinesh D’Souza says that I don’t exist, that I have nothing to say, that I am nowhere to be found.

But I am here.

The Pakistan cricket coach - Englishman Bob Woolmer - has been murdered at the Cricket World Cup.

This is the news CNN and the BBC are running with now. So I'll provide some story to this.

... and a Buddhist, Catholic, and Protestant. I am a Hindu polytheist and a secular atheist. Of these all, I believe in atheism. But it is not what I am.

I am a human being. And as a human being, I am all of humanity - diminished by its loss and enriched by its gain, culpable in its cruelty but driven by its heady wonder.

There was some discussion on this question a couple of days ago in the Brazille thread.  I thought I would put some research and thought into the issue.

First, the official Cheney position, as reported in USA Today 07/30/00:

On ABC's This Week, Cheney defended his 1986 vote against a resolution that called for U.S. recognition of the African National Congress in South Africa, freedom for the organization's then-imprisoned leader Nelson Mandela and negotiations with the black majority.    
  ''The ANC was then viewed as a terrorist organization,'' Cheney said Sunday. ''It was a step that we simply weren't prepared to take.''    
  Now, Cheney says he believes the ANC has ''mellowed'' and that Mandela is ''a great man.''    
  ''He deserves an enormous amount of credit for the transformation of South Africa,'' Cheney said ''But I don't have any problems at all with the vote I cast 20 years ago.''

[I tried and failed to find the box quotation magic words, very sad I know]

Reading posts over the last few weeks, I have become concerned about reactions to the question of electability.   It usually goes like this:

A.  "My candidate X is more electable because he rocks!"
B.  "That's no reason to think he is more electable!  You're just bullshitting."
A.  "No really, can't you see: he rocks!"
B.  "I'm getting sick and tired of you people talking about this crap.  All this stuff about electability is just nonsense.  Instead, we should all support my candidate Y because of his strong stand on [insert favourite issue here]"
C.  "I'm actually concerned about Y's electability, I'm not convinced."
B.  "No-one has said anything about why X is more electable!  It's a myth.  Therefore Y is more electable!"
D.  "I am declaring the electability meme dead!!  Anyone who talks about electability is a bad bad troll."