I rarely allow myself to become enraged by world politics. I see it as a worthless activity for the most part. Lately I have decided that I simply cannot watch another news cast out of the middle east. I have had all my Leftist-Liberal-Pacifist-Tolerant attitudes challenged as never before. I have friends who are from Iran and Irac, I know others who have married others from the middle east and they are all Muslim and are all decent, hard-working, law abiding people with families, mortgages, jobs and friends. They are affraid. They cannot speak out lest they be lumped in with the radical, no-mind, primitives who go around burning, bombing, torching and shooting anything that OFFENDS their delicate sensibilities. Democracy is a longer road than I believed. I supposed that here in the west, we have had all the growing pains with the Reformation, Inquisition, etc. but we didn'y have much to go on, now did we? Not much to model our behaviour on, if you get my drift. Not so for the Arab world...they just prefer the violent way of speaking. Kill a few innocents and you'll not only be heard, but you'll be revered, and sainted (or made into a prophet). Shit, I hate hate hate it. I cannot stand the primitive, destructive, violent ways of these extremist types. THey try the patience of all of us and give a very bad name to others who DO NOT deserve it.