I'm trying to think if I've ever enjoyed an e-mail with a subject that began, "Fwd: Fw: FW:" Probably not.

I don't get that many mass-forwarded e-mails anymore, thankfully. Maybe there aren't as many of them out there these days, more likely I just don't get them. The ones I do get are usually religious (Mom sent me a chain-letter that, if I was reading it correctly, was started by the Virgin Mary), patriotic, or religious and patriotic.

I recently received one entitled, "The Atheist and the Marine." It's about an ex-Marine taking a college class and the professor proclaims there is no God and if there is a God he should knock him off his pedestal in the next fifteen minutes. This is the kind of zero gain proclamation that is only made by characters in stories that are being set up for some kind of obvious comeuppance.

Anyway, let's skip to the end. With only a couple minutes left, the professor yells, "Time's almost up, God," and the Marine gets up and cold-cocks him. When the prof regains consciousness, the Marine explains, (punchline) "God was too busy today protecting America's soldiers. So, He sent me."

Assault, basically, right? You'd think any reasonable religious patriot would not want to forward this story along, since it paints those values in such a grotesque light.

Oh well. Here's what I thought was funny about it. The subtitle. I suspect the author meant to say something along the lines of, "stories don't get any better than this," but what they did write, "this doesn't get any better," is probably a more accurate warning.