This isn't nice, I know.

It's not nice to be happy that someone is dead.

But I can't help how I feel. And I believe, with all my heart, that the world we live in is a better one today because Jerry Falwell is dead.

And I don't know if I believe in Hell. But I have to think that if Hell does exist, a man who said and did the following things is now burning there for all eternity:

• In the 1960s, he referred to the Civil Rights Movement as the "Civil Wrongs Movement."
• In the 1980s, he was a strong supporter of apartheid in South Africa, encouraging Americans to support the government of PW Botha buy purchasing krugerrands. He characterized Desmond Tutu as "a phony."
• In his book America Can Be Saved, Falwell wrote "I hope I live to see the day when, as in the early days of our country, we won't have any public schools. The churches will have taken them over again and Christians will be running them."
• Falwell asserted that the Antichrist "would have to be, by necessity, a Jewish male." Maybe it's me?
  
• After the September 11 attacks, Falwell had plenty of blame to spread, when he said: "I really believe that the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People For the American Way, all of them who have tried to secularize America. I point the finger in their face and say 'you helped this happen.'"

There's more, of course, including the ridiculous "gay Teletubby" nonsense from 1999. But the point is made. This man was a reprehensible, homophobic, racist, anti-Semitic waste of human life. The dangerous part is that he gained a lot of power in this country, and twisted other minds into following his repugnant ideals.

Good riddance, you hate-filled bastard. I hope you're currently sweating your fat ass off in the flames of Hades.