Interesting article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/05/op...?_r=1&src=tptw

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If this is going to be a Christian nation that doesn't help the poor, either we have to pretend that Jesus was just as selfish as we are, or we've got to acknowledge that He commanded us to love the poor and serve the needy without condition, and then admit that we just don't want to do it.

- Stephen Colbert.

article makes some good points....However, no other religious or race have been associated with an attack on American soil. And said attack was supposedly in the name of the religion.

While American fears were unfounded in the past, this time it's appears to be different.

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Mental that one, I'm telling you. ---Ron Weasley, "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets"

The Christians attacked the native Americans on American soil. But beyond that, I think the fear of Muslims would be here even if the attack weren't on American soil.

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If this is going to be a Christian nation that doesn't help the poor, either we have to pretend that Jesus was just as selfish as we are, or we've got to acknowledge that He commanded us to love the poor and serve the needy without condition, and then admit that we just don't want to do it.

- Stephen Colbert.

What about Pearl Harbor? That seems the most obvious counter to yours.

There are other less well remembered instances. A German professor, in 1915, wanted to stop us from supporting World War 1 and set off a bomb in the Senate reception room.

In the 70's New York City was subjected to attacks by two different Puerto Rican separatist groups, the Jewish Defense League, and an anti-Castro Cuban group. During that decade these groups were responsible for about 80 attacks. In the 80's a Croatian group set off a bomb in the Statue of Liberty. And on and on.

I realize that in the last fifty or so decades that most attacks seem to have been fueled by Middle Eastern zealots, but we certainly have our own share of zealots as well. Oklahoma City, all the abortion clinic attacks, the Klu Klux Klan, the leftist attacks during the Viet Nam War, Unibomber, temple and church burnings, and on and on.

This seems to be our way of dealing with political and/or religious ideals that don't match our own. If you can't have your way, blow the suckers up.

I liked the article, mainly because it says what I've thought for a long time. We are a people who seem to need being afraid of things. I've often wondered if it's all the crime shows on TV. I've seen women, kids and men killed on a daily basis, multiple times a day some days. There is an urge by the filmmakers and writers to outgore the next show. Outgore, outshock, outnauseate. I make an attempt to not watch the really gory ones but they sometimes sneak up on you. The more you watch the more you get used to the gore. The less you care the next time you see a dead body. The less you care the easier it is to not see them as human beings.

I see fear used very successfully in politics. They are going to take your life savings away, your health care away, your social security away, your freedom of religion away, and give it to the immigrants, poor, or whatever other group is to be turned into a boogy man that political cycle. They will let criminals out of prison to run amok in your neighborhood and you can't protect yourselves because they took your guns away.

It gets tiring. I can no longer maintain my fear level to the point needed to feed the political frenzy machine.

I agree that some believe "don't agree, blow the suckers up".

I can also agree that fear is a motivator used by politicians and/or other leaders/people in power.

I just don't agree that the fears this time are completely unfounded.

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Mental that one, I'm telling you. ---Ron Weasley, "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets"