me old dear

my very sainted mother (not so) recently went into hospital as she was one of the many people coming down wiv cancer (there's a jade goody joke in there somewhere, but i've yet to get a laugh from it yet, so i'll leave it for now)

she was recovering from one of the many procedures she suffered in a valiant (and, thankfully, successful) attempt to escape the clutches of the horseman we all like least, when she was visited by a well-meaning christian friend (many of my mother's friends are of that persuasion, i've tried telling her, i really have..) who, whilst discussing (for some bizarre reason) the finer theological implications of my mother's suffering, said:
"we don't know why god had this in his plan for you?"
to which my mother (quite innocently) replied:
"somebody thought this was a good idea?"

kinda sums up my entire argument against any kind of theism/deism/paganism really...