Going, going, gone?

In the middle of a war, Al Gore tells a Saudi Arabia crowd that the US has been torturing and abusing Muslims in the US on a wholesale scale, which is patently untrue ..... Bill Clinton tells an Arab group that the publisher of the Denmark paper that published the Mohammed cartoons should be prosecuted and convicted ....

What in the name of JFK is going on? Can you imagine JFK, or FDR, or Harry Truman uttering such statements? I'm truly curious how any reasonable Democrat - and that includes many Democrats - can be anything but profoundly embarrassed by their party, as it's being represented and exploited by Gore, Clinton, Howard Dean, Schumer, Ted Kennedy ... Where are the best and the brightest of the Democratic Party? When will they rise up and take control of their party, bringing to the marketplace of ideas arguments of substance and reason and practicality, instead of the shrill drivel that is being served up by the old, failing Democratic Guard?

Southern Gentleman .... Not!

The display of bad manners at Coretta Scott King's funeral by Jimmy Carter and the minister was truly breath-taking, both in its rudeness, and in its ignorance. First of all, to use Ms. King's funeral as a platform to launch political bombs was an insult to her, and to the general cause of public decorum. Second of all, the Carter reference to "wire tapping" - an attempt to cheap shot President Bush over his NSA internet surveillance to catch Al Queda operatives - was ridiculous to the point of insanity, given that it was Jimmy Carter's own Democratic Kennedy/Johnson administration that conducted the illegal wiretaps on Rev. King and his family.

Calling on all traditional, mindful, reasonable, courteous Democrats - which includes some Democrats - there is a principle that "we teach what we allow" .... is Jimmy Carter's abysmal behaviour what you wish to teach those that follow?

Having failed as a President, Mr. Carter is now doing a bang up job of failing as an ex-President. Huh!, and I alway had thought that Billy was the loser of the family. Billy, my apologies.

Sticks and stones may break my bones

But cartoons should never hurt me. Can you imagine millions of Baptists or Protestants burning buildings worldwide and killing people, because a cartoonist in Tunisia had drawn a cartoon of Jesus? Or Jews attacking and looting businesses worldwide because someone drew a picture of King David or Abraham of the Old Testament? The mere thought of it is nonsensical. And why is that idea so farfetched? Because those religions and the cultures eminating from those religions are based upon a respect for law and responsibility for one's own actions, and the ability to discern right from wrong and act responsibly.

In fact, in many Muslim daily publications there are almost daily accounts of truly vile cartoons that attack and mock Christianity, Judaism, Israel, Americans, etc. None of the targets like the cartoons aimed at them, they may be offended and distressed by the cartoons, they may write a letter or an email to the editor in protest ... but you don't see the followers of those religions take to the streets in mobs of thousands, looting, burning, and killing.

So what's up with the Islamists? Why are so many of them untethered by such notions of right and wrong, respect for laws and people's safety? Why doesn't their religion instill that governor on their behavior and respect for others? For one thing, the average Muslim doesn't discern the truth for him or herself. They take the lead 100% from their mullahs, and many many mullahs have a political and power agenda which has nothing to do with spirituality. Muslim leadership is using the masses to further their own lust for power.

Pretty is as pretty does.

Contrary to many people's notion, evil people aren't defined by intrinsic 'evil' in their souls (in other words, 'thought' doesn't create the evil, thought is what PREVENTS the evil from being acted on). Evil people are people who DO evil, or people who deliberately incite others to DO evil for them. Mullahs the world over are inciting millions of Muslims to murder innocent non-Muslims. Do Christian and Jewish preachers and rabbis by the hundreds and thousands counsel their Christian and Jewish congregations to take to the streets and burn mosques and kill Muslims? Of course not - that is another rhetorical question that is almost too fantastical to even envision, much less contemplate. It is totally disconnected from rational action. So are cartoons. And so are people who act and react to a cartoon (even one in bad taste) with murder and mayhem, making a cartoon of their guiding belief structure in the process. Shame on them.