Thank you for your input. I really enjoyed it. I hope Wesley did as well.

But, I'm going to go ahead and count that World Series Championship (although I deeply respect your reasoning otherwise, Phil). To use a baseball analogy: Barry Bonds' shortest, cheapest home run is counted as a home run. A World Series Championship is a World Series Championship. Hearty Reds fans don't have buckets of those to be giving away.

Moving on to the Red Sox. Their team doesn't get on my nerves, their fans do. I've been friends with Kevin Youkilis for a long time, and Craig Hansen was on my summer team a few years back. They're great guys. How can you dislike Papi or Manny? You can't. It's those fans. It's the Jimmy Fallons of the world. Their fans are like that guy in high school who totally sucked and then he got a much much sweeter car than you had and he acts like he's King Shit. Moral of the story: he still sucks. Well, at least I'll always have Tony Perez's BOMB in Game 7 1975.

Talk to Daniel Pearl's family. THAT'S HARSH TREATMENT.

Speak to a member of Paul Johnson Jr's family. THATS HARSH TREATMENT.

(fyi - these people I'm bringing up were AMERICANS who were BEHEADED in the middle east).

I call beheading 'harsh.'

Salon may have a different definition.

Talk to a relative of Nick Berg. THAT'S HARSH TREATMENT.

I don't like what Bush is doing either, but please, let's agree on what 'harsh treatment' is.

How about the beheading of Eugene Armstrong, an American Civil Engineer? Does his beheading make you shake with rage Andrew? Does it make you want to go to a safe American bar and drink? Do American beheadings make you 'shake' at all? Or did they deserve it? Let me know what you think.

that the USA is the oldest democracy in the world. The country which saved the world from Hitler. We're the good guys. We set up a goverment by, for, and of the people.

Islamists, on the other hand, JUMP at any opportunity to sever an American's head from his body, any American, combatant, journalist, truck driver, etc... They would also JUMP at any opportunity to drop a nuke on New York or Washington. Or to set off a biological weapon in our subways.

One more time, who are the bad guys?

Is everyone eating crazy pills?

If you are a white America reading this, KNOW that Islamists would LOVE to cut your head off. But you still defend them and shame Bush?? Look, I don't like him either, I'm just asking you to consider our 'opponents,' and their actions.

If you still dislike America so much, you can go to a middle eastern country, such as the ones in which Americans are decapitated, and see how you are treated. (or just see how long you can see.)

Of course I understand that.... but I don't see much(any) reviling of Islamists from America's left, just reviling Bush.

Oh, and by the way, I believe torture is necessary in today's world (to prevent terrorism). If we could have tortured someone into confessing the 9/11 plot before it happened, should we have? Think about the 3000+ American lives lost and answer that question.

I just got a little worked up when Andrew O'Hehir gets fighting mad about how the US treats the enemy, when our enemies BRUTALLY AND VISCIOUSLY CUT OFF OUR CITIZEN'S HEADS.

I have no McMansion. I have no kids. I don't fear Islamists. I fear Americans who implicitly and explicitly condone America-bashing (despite enjoying it's UNPARALLELED liberties, opportunites, rights and freedoms) and don't speak out against Islamists who would LOVE to cut their head off for living in liberal America.

fyi - if you think bush is conservative, islamists are really really reaaally conservative. but you knew that, right?

I'm defining Islamists as people who are engaging in a revivalist movement whose goal is to impose Sharia as the only system of law for states. I'm also defining Islamists as the group who will use any means necessary (terror, suicide bombings, beheadings, suppressing women) to promote their ultra-conservative Islamic agenda (which is at odds with most Muslim thinking around the world). I define the leader of the Islamist movement as Osama binLaden.

On to jedimaster: "spouting RNC rhetoric"

-No. I am not a republican. They led us into a horribly misguided war in Iraq, and I'm not thrilled with what they've done domestically either. I'm an independant who will most likely vote for Barack Obama. I'm just bringing all of this up because Andrew O'Hehir was fighting mad about how the US has treated enemies and doesn't bring up that Islamists CUT OFF AMERICAN'S HEADS to acheive their goals. That set me off.

Did the beheadings of Daniel Pearl or Paul Johnson Jr, or Nick Berg or Eugene Armstrong make you shake with rage?

Don't apologize to me - apologize to all the Americans who won that war. Because you are downplaying their accomplishments.