"It's hard for us Americans to understand honor when our morality is basically to get away with everything you possibly can and take as much advantage of others as possible. "

First, can I just say to whoever it was that wrote the above quote, SHUT THE HELL UP. American society is not based on greed alone. I know far to many wonderful people in this country to give any creedence to you stupid generalization. Oh, sure. Other societies believe in honor, but not America? Why? What makes you say that? You think that because we are a rich country, we can't possibly have honor? Have you ever met an American soldier? Have you ever watched an American woman care for her aging parents, trying to balance her life and needs with the needs and dignity of her family? Have you ever seen Americans give their time to offer free English lessons to refugees? I see this every day, and if it's not honor, I really don't know what is. You sound like a Muslim fundamentalist.

Speaking of Muslim fundamentalists, this "honor"-based conversation makes me recall a story on NPR recently about a young girl who was kidnapped by a insurgent militia. When she was released, the POSSIBILITY that she might have been raped by the kidnappers was so potentially damaging to the clan's honor, that the family (her father and brother) decided that she needed to be killed. Since neither of them could stomach doing the deed themselves, they had an uncle gun her down upon her return to the family home. The man was quoted as saying "I'm sure when she returned, she was expecting hugs and kisses. Instead, she found bullets."

Oh, and what of that now-famous young woman in Pakistan who was raped, by a council of elders, as punishment for something that her brother supposedly did?

THAT is what you get in an honor-based society, an issue that was just barely touched upon during this "interview", or as I like to call it, this ass-kissing. The fact that women, children, and other "weaker" individuals are completely left out of every decision in honor-based societies is what has led us down the road to what we now consider a more just and equiatble way of life. This concept, the idea of women as property to be traded or destroyed according to arcane ideas of "honor" and "shame" is what makes these societies such terrible places to begin with.

And since the professor really seemed to boil his entire argument of "an eye for an eye" down to the brilliance of making a list with appropriate monetary compensation for lost body parts, even as he had mentioned that insuarnce companies do the same, well, I don't see what the point of the book really is. Yay, Safeco?

The Financial Times is still in print, and is still great, but they've dropped what I thought was great about the paper's set-up - that all articles were printed in one clump, so you weren't forced to search the back pages of hte newspaper for the continuation of a compelling article. At least, I THINK the FT used to have all-in-one articles.

I have two reasons for avoiding newspapers:

1. They are messy. The ink, trying to unfold and open and refold the paper so it is redable - I knock over my coffee every time. The continued-on-the-back-pages thing pisses me off as well.

2. Every time I have subscribed to a newspaper or news magazine (like Time) and my subscription runs out, I start getting nasty, form letters that sound kind of personal (I got one threatening to send a collection agency after me - when I called, the CSR assured me that it was a threat used on all college students, althought they couldn't come after me without a social security number). Combined with the almost daily calls to my home and office from the local newspaper pleading for my business, I simply grew tired of the pressure. Plus, I don't reallky have TIME in the morning to sit and gaze through dozens of inky pages. I've got an hour-long commute, so it's NPR, podcasts, and the Internet (once at work) for me.

as he untucked the ball from underneath his belly outside the end zone, and placed it in the end zone after being down for a full second. He looked like my dog when caught munching from the cat's litterbox. I don't even LIKE football. I care less about football than I do about hockey. And I really care very little about hockey. But even I got upset at this Superbowl.

Seattle didn't fall apart until after they were screwed over eight gazillion times by the line ref. Steelers fans should be ashamed that they had to rely on such crappy calls.

Most of you have written some very thoughful comments on this subject.

One of the things that always bugged me about being Muslim was the anger I was obliged to feel anytime anyone insulted my religion. Frankly, it's hard not to insult Muslims or Islam, given what a bunch of backwards bastards they are.

Insult away. Muslims need to realize that they are not immune to criticism. They need to realize that the freedoms they seek when they come to a Western country come with baggage - you can't have free speech without upsetting at least someone, and you can't expect the law to protect your feelings and no one else's.

And yes, Muslim reactions are entirely based on a very real feeling of insecurity. You'll never meet a bigger group of people with something to prove.