The one favor volokh may have done for us all is expose the thoughtful right wing blogs — such as volokh, to the idiocy on display here. They must be hanging their heads in shame.

In WW II, Nazi Germany & Japan were allies, the plan was for the Japanese to keep us busy so that Hilter can solidify his position in Europe & they both or either one, but it looks like both wanted America, conquers America. So an attack by Japan was an attack by Germany, as they were a collalition.

Gitardude, more power to you. Keep being strong, I know it’s not easy, but it’s worth it

I think they sunk some of our ships.

Equating Germany and Iraq puts an extremely low threshold on what you think is a tenable conflict for us to enter, don’t you think? I’m not saying that Saddam Hussien was a saint or anything, but there are plenty of people who are genocidal leaders alive and ruling today who we don’t mess with. So that cannot be our justification.

“These media outlets that think it’s bad taste to show brutality aganst Americans are the same ones who trip over themselves to be the first to show abuses against our enemies.”

I believe it’s because we, as a country, hold the moral highground. Or, at least, we believe that we hold the moral highground. The way you continue to hold the moral highground is not be hiding away the truth (the way that dictators and genocidal maniacs do) — it’s by having an open and free society.

If I may use an analogy to further illustrate my point: many people determine the value of their car not just by the way it looks to the outside, but by how it actually works on the inside (e.g. does it work well, is the mileage low, does it have a knock, etc.). A shiester car salesman polishes up the lemon with a nice coat of wax, vacuums the interior, and then gladly sells you a car that you’d be lucky to get off of the lot. So, in that sense, I believe that the MSM (as you’re calling it) thinks that it’s their job to ensure that we’re being honest with ourselves about what our country actually is.

Okay, so on that last part, there’s going to be a lot of disagreement (i.e. what “being honest” actually means). That’s good because we can disagree in a democracy without having to kill each other in order to work it out. That’s why there are THREE whole 24/7 news networks out there.

Anyway, back to beheading . . . No one expects any better of a Islamofacist terrorist. That group of people have no moral highground in our country: they’re clearly full of it. That said, we do think of ourselves as being good. And sometimes, you need to work through your badness in public so that you can continue to be good. No Arab country can call us hypocrites on human rights seriously (even if we do crappy things to people at Gitmo) — mainly because of that openness. It may be embarassing for a while, but it’s nothing compared to public beheading’s in Saudi Arabia, or religious police in Iran (and the list goes on and on).

Sorry for the length, but I think America is great — it’s even great when it’s beating itself up because that’s what it was designed to do. Our system is that strong.