Bert, that absolutely wasn't what I meant, and I'd think by now you'd know me well enough to realize that if I'm saying something even remotely like, "Nuke Somebody," it's in a deeply ironic way and not a bit of seriousness to it. Who I was sending up is the "experts" sitting on their barstools going off about American politics and the affairs of the world as if they know squat about it when they can't even trouble themselves to be informed about the most basic elements of current events. And what I was putting down, in a backhanded way, was the idiots -- and I use that term utterly seriously -- who are saying "Arab, Go Home," when they don't even know who's Arab and who isn't, and certainly aren't informed enough about geography to name even ONE Arab homeland. That you would equate something I say with the "neo-Nazis" astounds me.

Listen, my friend, I went out of my way today (like, an hour's drive) to have lunch at a Middle Eastern restaurant as a statement to the owners and anyone who might be in the restaurant or walking by that some of us here in the good ol' U.S.A. clearly distinguish between the people who perpetrated the attack on America and people who are of Middle Eastern descent. I did it out of support, not for the attackers, but for Arab-Americans, who've taken some nasty shots lately and I figure can use all the pleasantness and support we can offer, even if it only means eating lentil soup in their cafe ...

And, frankly, even though I worry about the outcome and the complications that are going to arise, and even though I know we contributed to the situation in the first place, I am not at all in disagreement with going after the Taliban. After reading about their subjugation of women for a few years now, I figure doing what can be done to free the people of that country from those oppressors stacks up more on the side of right than wrong. I don't know how you bomb a country and only target a specific group of religous thugs, but ... maybe time will tell. I figure we're only creating a new variety of hellishness for them and for us, but ... it was inevitable that something had to give. May God have mercy on us all ...

ww