A personal aside, relevant to this thread…

My wife, Nina, is the smartest person I know. She is fair-minded to a fault, perceptive, witty — and she is one of those rare people whose every act is in some way creative.

Anyhow, in spite of all these stellar attributes, Nina has suffered from (a mild case of) Bush Derangement Syndrome. I have despaired of persuading her that her support of Kerry was irrational.

When I read the news of the Besla horror, I immediately thought: “The jihadis have made a crtitical, and typically stupid, mistake here. This is going to push every woman and mother in this country, no matter how much she hates Bush, a few degrees toward the tipping point, and changing her mind in his favor.”

On a hike on the mountain where we live this morning, I asked Nina if she thought my conjecture was correct. To my surprise she replied:

“It pushed me closer to voting for him.”

Wow.

Jamie Irons