What inquisition?

Apparently, the Catholic church downplayed to death count due to inquisition while they asked to be forgiven for it. http://after-words.org/grim/mtarchives/2004/06/Jun161425.shtml
According to skeptics, religious violence has led to many millions of murders, not just through Christians or inquisition, in the past millennium. http://www.theskepticalreview.com/JAHPoliticsDeathToll.html
How then am I to reconcile the church's apology, the fact of the killings, Christians' destruction of sacrificial "pagan" beliefs around the world, skeptics' accusations about religion as a source of violence, and the assertions of other Christians I know personally that none of them would support such actions? How then, also, am I to handle the remains of my pagan heritage, destroyed as it were by evangelism? Should I claim the Catholic supplanters' faith, the older beliefs, both, or neither? Which path would gain me the richness of an established tradition which will live on for generations after me? Sometimes we cannot learn answers, only questions. The rest is up to us. I sure wish I had a narrative to guide me, but the clearest story in the Bible is actually composed of four viewpoints, and the ancient narratives of my culture appear to be lost.
I guess I should love each person, as Jesus would do. Then, I should judge their actions as closely as I can to how God would. It comes down to credibility, after all. We shall know them by their fruit, not what they say or what they believe. A Satanist who harms no one is a good person. A Christian who engineers the destruction of others is evil. My beliefs do not change. Like a skeptic, I say that I have a higher standard of morality than Christians. Knowing skeptics, I believe I am more truthful than they.

Video games in the attic which I still play sometimes

I was thinking about my favorite video game memories from bygone days.
Master of Magic's wizards, from memory: Lo Pan, Ss'Ra, Kali, Rjak, Sharee, Oberic, Jafar, Freya, Horus, Raven, Tlaloc, Tauron
I forgot Ariel! I never used her anyway.
My top 10 games of all time: Super Dodge Ball (NES), Chrono Trigger (SNES), Super Street Fighter 2 (SNES), Saturday Night Slam Masters (SNES), Master of Magic (PC), Mechwarrior 4 (PC), Kohan 2 (PC), Starcraft (PC), Star Control 2 (PC), Joint Ops (PC)

Commie dairy farmers living the American dream

What's the difference if dairy farmers get a direct subsidy from the government, from taxes, or from the marketplace through a government price setting scheme? A price set by the government is still NOT a marketplace price, no matter what the dairy industry would have us believe.

Literature vs. politics

Imaginative literature - science fiction and fantasy - is much more than escapism. By creating new cultures and scenarios, we create a rare opportunity for people to step outside their own reality, and freely consider the real issues in their lives. The mythology we are creating in this age is the cure for ethnocentrism. And no, Virginia, we are not going to cram ourselves into the Western Judeo-Christian conception for our stories. I don't think a black and white fantasy world, no matter how many millions we spend on the special effects, is going to get people out of the current black and white thinking which dominates American culture and led us to be the largest negative influence on the world.

Smashing Pumpkins live on, sort of

I came to two conclusions today after reading about the Smashing Pumpkins two least popular releases, Machina and Zeitgeist. 1. Their style is described as "gothic-metal-shoegaze." That explains why I like some things in each of those styles, and I generally like everything the Pumpkins have done. 2. The Pumpkins have become Spinal Tap. If their bassist, lead guitarist or keyboardist dies under mysterious circumstances, they will probably continue touring anyway.