Mike Geary wrote: ?Does that mean Iran is a threat to our security? There's nothing in their history to suggest that. Nothing. Nada. Zero. Zilch. They have no history of forcing other peoples to be like them.? Except for the Revolution which forced a very particular understanding of Sharia on the whole of Iran. And their brutal persecution of the Bahai. And their support for Hekmatyar and other warlords in Afghanistan. And Hezbollah in Lebanon. And now Hamas. And in Iraq. But apart from these, you are right they don?t have a history of forcing other people to be like them. Mike continues: ?The U. S. under this administration is your enemy, Phil, not Iran.? It seems to me that both represent different kinds of threats and I don? t see why I have to choose. If it makes you feel better, yes I think you Americans are crazy for allowing all this domestic spying. How a country that produced the Posse Comitatus Act and has so-called conservatives controlling the White House, Congress and now SCOTUS could permit and justify this massive intrusion of the Federal government is beyond me. I consider myself to be something of a libertarian and the revelations of the last 24 hours have left me wondering what the hell is going on down there. The NSA has a database that is gathering information on every phone call in the US and conservatives are ?concerned?? Yeah, I think Ahmadi-Nejad is a threat and I think the Bush administration also represents a threat. The two are different and I don?t feel that the one requires that I can?t say anything about the other. Sincerely, Phil Enns, an old-fashioned liberal. ------------------------------------------------------------------ To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off, digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html