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I would have to totally agree with your statement:

"militant religious nuts in general are the cause of our terrorist problems. Once anyone crosses the line from "Praise God" to "Kill for God" - they become the enemy - Christian, Jew, Muslim, Wiccan - whatever."

I don't think the problem can be generalized as easy as saying a particular religion is bad just as I don't think it's fair to say a particular race is bad. There are really evil people within any group you could possibly choose. That doesn't make the rest of the group evil.

I would still say that there seems to be large numbers of "splinter" groups of Islam radicals who are nothing more than terrorists. But I don't believe that they represent all Muslims and I don't believe that their religion has anything to do with their terrorist activities. They may use it as an excuse or a shield, but it doesn't mean that the religion is the issue.

First, I am not (by registration, anyway) a Republican. I'm a member of the Libertarian party.

That means, in a generalized way, that I try to base my economic, political and moral thinking on analysis in terms of empirical reason. In other words, if you try to walk on water, you're gonna get wet.

For most of us who follow this belief (of which Milton Friedman and Ayn Rand are probably the best-known advocates) it means that Government should simply stay away from attempts to regulate the economy.

In the purest form, it would also imply no legislated morality .. no restrictions on substance (ab)use or sexual conduct.

But that also implies full responsibility for your actions: I wouldn't care about gay civil unions one way or the other, except that the primary objective seems to be to allow large numbers of gay-loser couples to raid the Social Security system.

And if you ruin your health through unwise conduct, be it sexual profligacy, drug use, smoking, etc. It's not the duty of those who've been more responsible to clean up after you.

So the simple dyanmics of the political scene make it more likely that the Democrats wiil propose laws I view as a threat to my life's work. If the Republican is a proven bigot like Duke, Helms, North, Denton or Dornan, I might consider a Democrat, but it's rare to find a Democrat, and especially a Liberal Democrat, who understands that the problem is usually an attempt by legislators to undercut the natural workings of a market economy.

And that way to level the playing field is not to pass laws, but to repeal them.

Now consider radical (as opposed to mainstream) Islam. --- If you've read Malcolm X, you know that, like a secular Jew, he had little belief in a supreme being or afterlife. ("**** is when you're dumb!" -- Malcolm X).

But Fundamentalist Muslims, like Fundamentalist Christians and environmentalists, in varing degrees, believe that right is on their side by definition and that their actions are self-justifying.

And that pretty much explains my preference for conservatives over liberals and Republicans over Democrats, unless a Libertarian is available.

And I'll suggest a site --- www.freedomsnest.com

There are an estimated 1,780,000,000 Muslims in the world today.

Let's pluck a figure out of the air, and say that 10,000 or even 100,000 or even 1,000,000 of these people are radical terrorists.

You can readily see that the terrorist element is but a drop in the bucket compared with Muslims in general.

Tragically relatively few Westerners have had any personal contact with Muslims, and hence have no understanding whatsoever of the Islamic Faith.

To judge the beliefs and character of 1,780 billion Muslims on the visible actions of this small minority of terrorists, who in no way represent the true teachings of Islam, has created a totally unjustified hatred and fear of Muslims in general.

the equivalent of your Republican Party is the coalition of the "Liberal" and National Parties.

At the Federal election in November, 2001, Prime Minister John Howard callously exploited racism and xenophobia to win re-election, based on 9/11 and the arrival at the northern shores of Australia of illegal boat people, mostly from Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Concurrently there were several instances of pack rapes on young Australian girls by young Muslim Lebanese men.

I was quite horrified to encounter the intense racial hatred that obviously lay very close to the surface in people I had known for many years -- mostly Christians of course.

Very soon I intend opening up a can of worms with an issue which MUST be addressed, namely, the very unchristian beliefs and attitudes of supposed Christians who strongly align themselves with right-wing politics.

You are an ***/hole with an agenda. Bush won and I hope that he rams his Republican agenda down the throats of people like you.

Islam is the problem...we didn't start 9/11 they did. How can you be so ******* stupid?