B E B E R E

Didn't feel much like posting anything yesterday - got a good night's sleep, wanted to enjoy the beautiful day out...a couple things struck me, however.

First is this image. Seeing this makes me forget that we're involved in an 'immoral' war on two fronts, and that our priority for women's rights should actually be here. Let's take Augusta, for example, since the NYT saw fit to carry a series on it in the last year or so. We won't be a truly civilized society until women can play golf next to men in major tournaments. Remember that.

Second, Ann Althouse has a couple of posts on the level of political discourse in Madison, WI. Glenn Reynolds has a round up the shooting up of the Bush/Cheney headquarters in Knoxville, along with a round up of other incidents and commentary.

I'm reminded of the National Post newspaper vending machines I saw all over Toronto that someone with a lot of time on their hands went through a fair bit of trouble vandalizing: every one of them that I saw (not just around the U Toronto campus, either) had a swastika painted on them and the word "National" blackened out and replaced with the word "Nazi." (National Post is the one slightly right of center paper in Canada. Mark Steyn used to write a column for it.) Horrendously insensitive? Unclear on the concept? Nazis were socialists, not 'conservatives.' They shut down newspapers, vandalized property and killed people who spoke out against them.

Storming campaign offices and driveby shootings are taking this all to another level, however. I read that these are seeming like a coordinated event all over the country (follow the links). Why isn't this getting more coverage? It depresses me, but none of it surprises me. And I don't know that this is not becoming more mainstream. I mean, I've spoken to people who you'd not expect to be 'extremist' in their beliefs who were outraged and disgusted that the Republicans were even holding a convention this year. It's like people have lost the ability to reason or something. Perhaps we need to look at how the Afghanis or the Iraqis are conducting themselves before their elections to see how we should be behaving.