[adam_az]

Some very interesting observations...

[adam_az]

Thought you guys might find this interesting.

[tkathy]

There are plenty of middle class and intellectual crazies. This is beyond subjective bias.

[HuntsvilleTxVeteran]

I agree with the below.

So what's your strategy for combating suicide terrorism?

A: I think it has to be a multilayered strategy. You've got to be able to--and this I'm all for--go after the guys who operate the cells. Take them out. Get rid of them. Jail them or kill them, because they are not willing to compromise. What do you do with somebody who says, "All Americans and Jews have got to die"? The point of talking to such people has passed. Whatever the grievances were that caused such people to have such ideas, if they show that they're willing to implement them, then you've just got to make a decision whether you want to see this guy survive or you and your people survive.

[Billthedrill]

I'm not sure it really fits well into an evolutionary paradigm, but his contention that religion supplies a necessary corrective to some profoundly destructive tendencies of irreligious Man strikes a chord. I would broaden his comments concerning religion as a functional tool in overall species survival to refer to human culture as a whole, only one small part of which is subsumed under the category of things theological.

But here I do think he has a point:

Jail them or kill them, because they are not willing to compromise. What do you do with somebody who says, "All Americans and Jews have got to die"? The point of talking to such people has passed.

Untypically realistic for an academic, IMHO. I'll be checking into this guy's book.

[Mark was here]

It's the same way that our fast-food industry manipulates our desires for sugars and fats,

Lost interest at this point, All the fast food industry wants is to have their name pop in our head first, so they can capitalize on our need for food.

[Ronin]

You've got to be able to--and this I'm all for--go after the guys who operate the cells. Take them out. Get rid of them. Jail them or kill them, because they are not willing to compromise. What do you do with somebody who says, "All Americans and Jews have got to die"? The point of talking to such people has passed.

Here is simple wisdom.

[FreeReporting]

Reminds me of the studies of the effect of education on prejudice.

The researchers expected to find that higher levels of education lessened the amount of prejudice, but all they actually did was to give the subject more ammunition to justify his prejudiced perceptions.

[Valin]

The Defense Intelligence Agency also gave me profiles of all these people they were interrogating at Guantánamo Bay in Cuba. They divide them into Yemenis and Saudis. The Yemenis are sort of the foot soldiers. And they found that the Saudis, their leaders especially, are from high-status families. A surprising number have graduate degrees. And they are willing to give up everything. They give up well-paying jobs, they give up their families, whom they really adore, to sacrifice themselves because they really believe that it's the only way they're going to change the world.

For more on this there is a speech by Tom Friedmen found at (note a pdf file boooo!)
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=%22The+Wheel+of+Bin+laden%22&btnG=Google+Search