a well-armed fundamentalist fanatical Islamic theocracy.

To combat such a threat, and to support peace and democracy, the Anglosphere and the rest of whatever still remains of Western Civilization should support the Bush-Cheney program to provide weapons to Saudi Arabia.

The extensive conversation with Steyn that you'd establish as a criterion for judging his motives is already available in his writing. Devil that I am, let me quote scripture to my own purpose: A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid.

If you can honestly read the reams of self-serving vitriol published by Steyn and not see in him what Glenn sees, then I'd suggest that Glenn is the better psychologist.

It's no fun to go to view a movie with bad Chihuahua psychologist who would probably wolf down the buttered lima beans ya's snuck into the theatre in your back pocket to save a plumb wood nickel of nonsense.

Pop goes a weasel. Yup.

Pop-bad-shrinks stink!

Ya's can say that again,

and ya's just tooting? Toot.

Those pew wild "dirty rats" are unsavory critters who always steal the scraps.

GOPS are rodents who urinate on the keyboards. Rats jump from sinking ships.

The quote from Steyn in question is:

He may have a point: It's psychologically exhausting being on permanent Orange Alert....

and Glenn's response:

The truth is exactly the opposite. There is nothing more psychologically invigorating than the belief that you are staring down the Greatest and Most Evil Enemy Ever in History, courageously waging glorious war for all that is Good and Just in the world.

We don't know that Steyn feels this way. What we do know is that Steyn has claimed in his writing to feel the opposite. Glenn is not only accusing Steyn of being dishonest in his writing, he is claiming that Steyn is writing exactly the opposite of how he truly feels. To call it presumptuous doesn't quite get us there, does it? Furthermore, how would Glenn know that "there is nothing more psychologically invigorating" unless he himself has experienced it? And that's just it... in Glenn's opinion, there is nothing more psychologically invigorating, as he clearly states in his own words.

Analyzing polemicists, instead of taking a hard look at what they say, what their public arguments are, is a diversion.

As has been demonstrated here in the last day within this thread, looking at what William Kristol said on Monday, discussing what he meant as a political writer, is the point.

What he said Monday, as far as discussing day to day politics within the news cycle, is even more important given the fresh stories out of Pakistan overnight, more important than psychology.

His careless and distorted use of Orwell to hold Kipling up as a great political writer and poet is the point.

His quackery about Democrats not supporting the FISA law and telecom immunity being on the same level as some vague opposition to British Victorian Imperial designs in the late 19th century is the point.

And so, with that, Kristol's rank demagoguery about "staying the course" or "sucking it up" in Iraq, Afghanistan - and Pakistan - is the point.

Who cares what kind of childhood trauma Kristol or Steyn suffered, ot whether they have sexual hang-ups, or gun fetishes?

They are promoters of a set of political policies; they are not offering confessionals.

In a good garden patch with potential health always evolving, there can be 25- Earthworms to a square foot.

The worms on a day like today,

when the earth surface is crusty,

worms surface to feed upon residue.

That's good.

Great fertility!

Then worms slink downward again to help.

We don't know that Steyn feels this way.

--Anonymous

I don't know what you know but I do know that you don't know what "we" knows about Steyn. I also know that Steyn has a track record based upon his blog writings. "We" might draw some conclusions about how Steyn "feels" from having read those blog writings. Is that all right with you? Or are you still going to insist that we know nothing just because you say so?

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,331100,00.html

Amtrak passengers will have to submit to random screening of carry-on bags in a major new security push that will include officers with automatic weapons and butt-sniffing dogs patrolling platforms and trains, the railroad planned to announce Tuesday.

The teams will show up unannounced at stations and set up butt sniffing areas in front of boarding gates. Officers will randomly pull people out of line and specially trained dogs will sniff their butts. If the dogs detect anything, officers will conduct a discreet anal probe.

Anybody who is selected for butt sniffing and refuses will not be allowed to board and their ticket will be refunded.

"There is no new or different specific threat," an Amtrak spokesman said. "This is just the correct step to take."

assume that political debate exists in a vacuum.

It's as if any conclusions drawn about a person's mindset can only be guided by the current work in front of us or we're cheating.

Mark Steyn has a whole body of work behind him, and judgment about his latest cannot and need not be divorced from what we know of his previous contributions.

Glenn is not only accusing Steyn of being dishonest in his writing

Not that much of a leap.

If you're going to go out of the way to defend warmongering you might as well take responsibilty for the necessary emotional content behind yopur argument.

Either that or dishonesty is indeed the order of the day.

some people believe the American military is the Most Evil Enemy Ever

Speaking of dishonesty, it would appear that someone is very busy with the straw.

Again, look at the body of Steyn's writing. He clearly gets off on seeing himself as the last embattled defender of Western Civilization; the exhaustion he refers to is a rhetorical device intended to engender sympathy for his lone struggle.

Is is -- in a word -- disingenuous. (There might also be just a whiff of guilty conscience hovering about it as he begins, but of course our valiant culture warrior has recovered himself and re-girded his loins long before putting the trumpet once again to his lips at the end.)

A drama queen. No more, no less. And a disgusting one at that.