OT: Or[r]in Hatch Famous for 15 Minutes

It's striking to me how you can say that Osama is excusable, but Ashcroft is not. Between you and I, our thinking systems are totally inverted.

I didn't say that Osama was excusable, I said he had one poor excuse. Further, I didn't say that I found this excuse acceptable. I pointed to its existence. I said that Ashcroft didn't have the same poor excuse. You supplied the spin.

So you think that the mid-America where Ashcroft is from is comparable to Saudi Arabia in its religious thought-adverse monoculture? As much as I'd like to sarcastically agree with you about that, it really isn't true, and Ashcroft hasn't got that particular excuse even though he did get a full religious brainwashing as a child. He's smart enough to have eventually looked around and figured out what was wrong with the picture of the world he was being given.

You should also note that holding Ashcroft to a higher standard is a reflection of the estimation that I have for the country in which he grew up, in which he had many later successes, and which is now the country he is helping to destroy.

I find it amazing that you could find any excuse for Osama's actions, the mass murder of 2000+ and that you would equate Ashcroft to such a premise, and finally, to find Ashcroft, in a comparison to Osama, inexcusable.

First of all, I disagree with your original premise: That Osama grew up in an environment that lacked 'critical thinking' in regards to religion. I think that most Muslims have done more thinking about religion than many westerners, and while I think Osama's religious premises are 'warped,' I think this is an aberration of his religion, and not a tenet of it.

I don't think Osama is brainwashed, if anything, he's the one doing the brainwashing. He's not some ignorant peasant, Swamp Fox character, he's the son of a Saudi billionaire who could've had a nice easy life sitting on his fortune, instead he expanded his squabbles with the Saudi royal family into international strife, and doesn't really care how many people he takes out trying to rid Saudi Arabia of its ruling class.

On the other side, Ashcroft has killed fewer people than Teddy Kennedy, but you seem to think him worse.

Everyone who posts to this board has a similar desire, thus the reason for their post: to convince others they are right. Politics and religion have no monopoly on that.

Lest you think otherwise, the suicide bombing of the WTC was clearly an overt act to try to bring down this country. Any of Ashcroft's actions, whatever you may think of them, quite pale in comparison by magnitude, intent and deed.