It is an odd thing, but America's policy choices in the Middle East always seem to require the destruction of indigenous Christian communities there, some of them the oldest in the world. Invasion and occupation were mistakes in Iraq and Afghanistan -- as my late father said, "Bush got his hook hung" there. Why not sit this one out, and save money, reputation and American lives?

Cromwell chopped off King Charles's head. He dissolved Parliament. Cromwell was not a nice man. But he was decisive, and he didn't tolerate dissent. You think that he was right, but I have my doubts.

I am wandering into a theological thicket, but there is a reputable strain of Protestant thinking that talks about "present eschatology." Presbyterian and Methodist, for the much part. It presents Jesus Christ as a universal Savior, not simply one dedicated solely to the Jews. Perhaps this doctrine has been misused for political purposes?

As those who admire the writings of H. L. Mencken will recall, FDR routinely used the IRS as a means to destroy his political enemies. My infrequent contacts with the agency have given me the impression that most IRS agents are helpful and well meaning. Any sort of rogue activity, such as the persecution of Tea Party organizations, is almost certainly initiated by political appointees at the highest levels.

"Some of my best friends are liberals." No, really, it's true. What I have found is that soi-disant liberals tend to be people with no foundation in philosophy, religion or history. Given the prevailing corruption in our educational system, one can build such a foundation only through self-education, and few people are willing to invest the time and effort it takes to do so. Liberals absorb their squishy ideas through school, TV and other media of pop culture. Oh, as an aside, I like the Bay area. My nominee for #2 is Las Vegas, the epitome of all that is crass in America.

I am with Mona on this one, although we may not see eye-to-eye. Einstein was a warm supporter of Stalin's Soviet Union, although he preferred not to live there. Scientists make mistakes, even at the highest level. It was also a mistake for Anglo-American academics to boycott South Africa, and it is a mistake for them now to boycott Israel. Faddists follow fashion, and the fashion now is anti-Israeli. I deplore it, but I watched, utterly helpless, while Rhodesia and South Africa went under.

Read F.R. Hayek's "Road to Serfdom". Building a solid black voting bloc (96% for Obama) has been key to constructing socialism in this country and that required, first, destroying the black family and, second, putting blacks on a Democratic plantation with the promise that they will be the overseers and whites will be the slaves. Whatever you think of the results, the socialists have won, with the connivance of the Rockefeller wing of the Republican Party.

But there is an argument being made on an everyday basis, that goes as follows. If Joe hates Bob, if Joe and Bob are of different ethnic groups and even if Joe is not free to break the law, then Bob IS free to break the law, even if Joe is a figment of Bob's fevered imagination. It all depends on whether Bob is a member of an ethnic group that is "disadvantaged." That is when Bob gets the advantage of breaking the law.

Confucius said, "When words lose their meaning, people will lose their liberty." One of my heroes, F.A. Hayek, devoted chapter seven in his book, "The Fatal Conceit", to the topic of "Our Poisoned Language" (pp. 106-119). Hayek (1899-1992) didn't live long enough to see the rise of "diversity" as yet another weasel word disguising the lust for power, but Hayek might still hang on to his choice of "social" as "the most confusing expression in our entire moral and political vocabulary" (p. 114). Another good article from Dr. Sowell, pointing out the semantic deviltry of the left.

Keynes's argument has been misappropriated for decades by lusty straights who have also taken a short-term view of political economy, namely almost all politicians, who care first and foremost about their own re-election. Like Marx, Keynes has provided intellectual cover for those who wish to loot the wealth of a country. But whether Ferguson is right or wrong on the immediate question -- I suspect that he is right -- this is still a free country and he should be able to express himself without being pursued by the lynch mob that is the American media.