We are foolishly polite when we need to be fiercely determined. To give this vaunted "war on terrorism" legitimacy and determination and purpose, we might recall the words of "The Battle Hymn of the Republic," written in 1861, during a time of national crisis like none we’ve seen till now. The Civil War was waged to save the republic; today’s war against Islamist terrorism must be waged to save Western civilization. It requires precisely, in Julia Ward Howe’s unparalled image, that "terrible swift sword."

--David Brudnoy, September 11, 2002

Unfortunately, David Brudnoy is on his way out.

Last night, WBZ radio paid tribute to him with a three-hour retrospective of his career, including an interview taped earlier in the day. ''I've said to corporate for the better part of a decade that he's the best talk host in America," said Ted Jordan, the station's general manager.

His show was often an eclectic cocktail of modern culture -- a philosopher one hour, a novelist pitching a book or a movie star promoting a new film the next, and maybe a US senator in the last slot of the night.

''David is a Massachusetts treasure," Governor Mitt Romney said in a telephone interview. ''He is an unadulterated voice of truth.

''The two most important days in your life are the day you're born and the day you leave," Romney continued. ''On the day you leave, you measure your life on two things -- what you're taking with you and what you're leaving behind. What he's taking with him is a soul that's pure, honest, and full of character and integrity. What he leaves behind is literally millions of listeners who have gotten new perspectives and insights from his unprejudiced voice."

And less from the people who believe in the Bigot God of 9/11 (and who'd be likely to think that good people like Brudnoy who die are being punished by their wretched "god").

I notice Brudnoy's an agnostic, which I think is a more honest view than the cowards who fear the gods of bigotry.

No wonder so many people are emotionally stuck on atheism. It's amazing that a few of them -- like this guy -- eventually conclude that there is a god, but to their amazement he's not a bigot.

At age 81, after decades of insisting belief is a mistake, Antony Flew has concluded that some sort of intelligence or first cause must have created the universe. A super-intelligence is the only good explanation for the origin of life and the complexity of nature, Flew said in a telephone interview from England.

Flew said he's best labeled a deist like Thomas Jefferson, whose God was not actively involved in people's lives.

"I'm thinking of a God very different from the God of the Christian and far and away from the God of Islam, because both are depicted as omnipotent Oriental despots, cosmic Saddam Husseins," he said. "It could be a person in the sense of a being that has intelligence and a purpose, I suppose."

And what will they do if it turns out there is a god, and he's not?

UPDATE: I now see that David Brudnoy passed away two minutes after I saved the first draft of this. He has what might pass (hopefully non-arrogantly) as a form of prayer from at least one nonpracticing pagan pantheistic christian.