It's hard for me to get interested in American Idol, Madonna’s latest adoption, Larry King getting honored by CNN despite being a terrible journalist, or whatever bit of so-called news people are going gaga about when people are dying - be it the deaths of soldiers, the deaths of Iraqi civilians, or those killed by the jerk at Virginia Tech.

What disgusts me the most is that cold-hearted psycho Fred Phelps who thinks God told him to not only hate gays but to go to military funerals to disrupt proceedings with his messages of venom. I thought Phelps had hit a new low when he planned to disrupt the proceedings of the funeral for the Amish people killed not too far from where I live.

The news that Phelps planned to disrupt the services for the Virginia Tech students made me want to vomit. I try to avoid allowing any hate in my life. I try to live by example, especially when working with students and teenagers. I try not to hate anyone, but if there was one person I hate it is Phelps.

I think sometimes about whether we are inherently evil or inherently good. Is it genetics or learned behavior that makes some of us good and some of us bad? I sometimes refer to myself as a cynical idealist, meaning I really hope for the best, but dread that I'll ultimately be disappointed.

Today, thinking about Phelps and the Virginia Tech shooter, I'm leaning toward the inherently evil argument. Here's hoping that some good news tomorrow will make me return to what I was thinking Monday as I started a great new job, that the world is a good place and we are not, by nature, evil people.