At 07:04 PM 3/4/96 -0500, John Young wrote:

The Economist terrorism report is unusally thoughtful and open-minded,

As opposed to the drivel you normally see in the media?

and considers the benefits of savaging innocents from the perspectives of a variety of deeply held beliefs.

Which "innocents"? And which "deeply held beliefs"? I've never advocated "savaging innocents." But I don't consider people who benefit from government theft AND actively participate in that theft by being employed by that government as "innocents."

But after revewing the plenitude of those who have murdered

I notice you used the term, "murdered." Well, by the strict definition of the term, that's merely premeditated killing which is against the law. In a country suitably dictatorial government, defending oneself from agression by its agents is, then, "murder." Sorry, but I don't subscribe to the agressor's (government's) opinion of what I may do to him if I were given the opportunity.

for understandable motives, it does point to a very small group who truly lack any rationale for earthly comprehension.

Read: "It selectively focuses on a few, wrong people, and ignores the rest who are justified." Did I get it?

Not that I want to get on your "Shit, shoot that fucker" list, but take a look at it to double-check that you're not skydiving into the wrong maelstrom. It's pretty long, but I'll gladly scan it and send it along.

Well, go right ahead. The Economist is better than most, but I seriously doubt that there is going to be anything there that changes my mind. Maybe I ought to email my essay to the author, to see what he thinks of it...

If not that, read Tim's pithy warning today about shit-stormtroopers provoked by the daredeviltry of extreme-unctuous freedom fighters.

It's hard to provoke a person who is already dead. If my system were operational, those "stormtroopers" wouldn't dare go to work in the morning. Or can't you see that? If we dictate all of our actions based on the fear of what THEY will do, then THEY have already won, and we have already lost. Jim Bell