That heading is the money quote from a Reuters article describing a report soon to be issued by the EastWest Institute. The report highlights similarities in the approaches by radical religious extremist groups of Muslim, Christian and Jewish persuasion. In all three cases, legitimate grievances are built up into a worldview of good battling against evil and then radicalized to the point that the resulting violence kills civilians and members of their own religion. Yahoo picked up the story here:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070613/us_nm/security_usa_extremism_dc;_ylt=Ahe8pYq0nK0S2F7P2sZIfMSs0NUE

In other words, don't believe that this week's Hamas against Fatah fight is any different than what will result right here in our country if we continue to allow religious radicals to shred our Constitution and incite fear-based hate mongering to plunge our country into the same abyss.

The USA Today article Tim links to has a link allowing us to vote to send Libby to prison now. Of course, this is totally meaningless but still fun. When I voted just now, 76% of those voting were in favor of jail now. Good numbers for people silly enough to read the McPaper website if they weren't linked there by something else like Salon.

Please allow me to continue quoting from Chapter 1 of Al Gore's The Assault on Reason.

Christopher Columbus, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, Susan B. Anthony, and Neil Armstrong all found success by challenging the unknown and overcoming fear with courage and a sense of proportion that helped them overcome legitimate fears without being distracted by distorted and illusory fears.

The Founders of our country faced dire threats. If they failed in their endeavors, they would have been hanged as traitors. The very existence of our country was at risk. Yet in the teeth of those dangers, they insisted on establishing the freedoms that became the Bill of Rights.

I think Gore has very succinctly summed up true courage. This stands in stark contrast and complete opposition to the "manliness" [Harvey Mansfield need not apply] so popular with the Republican party when its moves to subvert the Constitution in proving the toughness of the response to danger.

If only our country could find its way back to a sense of proportion.

Check out the home page for Time (I clicked through from CNN.com, don't know if this is necessary). On the lower right is a picture of the current issue cover, with Aunuld in a palsy picture with Bloomberg. Aunuld's arm is around Bloomberg's neck. The story headlines in the column alongside the picture:

The Courage Primary

Feeling out the Newest Touch Screens

The Quiet Gay Revolution

Comedians' Little Secret

The Enemy's New Tools in Iraq

I don't think I can count the number of meanings and levels in those lines!

Several commenters on previous threads have suggested that our best hope for preventing war with Iran may lie with the military itself. Many of our military leaders are simply too smart to go along with such a disastrous mission.

Of course, the latest round of musical chairs at the highest levels of the military leaves open the possibility that those who won't support action in Iran are already leaving and being replaced by those who will support it.

I've mentioned this a couple of times before, but given the neocons' desire to attack Iran, why didn't we attack when the British sailors were seized? I was convinced the bombs would be dropping within hours of the event.

Many states have statutes preventing convicted criminals from profiting from their crimes. Is there also a federal statute as well? If so, it seems to me that there should be a well-orchestrated movement to make sure Libby is forced to pay the fine from his own assets without ever being reimbursed. He also should be prevented from hitting the lecture circuit with any speeches referring to his activities in this fiasco and should be prevented from publishing any books as well. Anyone know how to accomplish this? Is the legal defense fund that has been raised also subject to any of these laws?

The civil suit by Joe and Valerie should be able to increase the pressure here. Since this approach was used (albeit with only limited success) on OJ Simpson, surely it can be used on Libby.