Read 'em and Weep

I've said often that the Wall Street Journal is schizophrenic. The news is covered wonderfully in its pages, while the OPED section corrals the most reactionary and conservative bits into one place. I slog through it every day to gain some perspective on current conservative thought. Sometimes painful, sometimes hilarious; the letters provide me with plenty of opportunity to laugh out loud or to shake my head.

Today's edition contained a letter (subscription) that after I first read it made me think that I must have mis-read it. But no, this was really the first paragraph:

Daniel Henninger's June 28 column Wonderland "Evil Or Just Politics?" seeks to examine the spectrum of plausible excuses for the inexcusable. Whether it is supporting senseless abortion, beheadings or terrorism perpetuated by people who claim their behavior rooted in a fanatical and limited belief in God, it can only be summed up by one word. Evil.

Did you catch it? Did it make you do a double take?

In reverse order, the writer conflated the following items: terrorism, beheadings and abortion.

In that short paragraph, this person summarily places anyone who's had to make the difficult, personal, medical decision to have an abortion (and truthfully, anyone who has thought about it or approves of it) in the same moral category with terrorists and fundamentalist thugs. And make no mistake about it, these people would make the punishment for all three the same if they could.

The final two sentences of the letter illustrate the absolute break with reality faced by the writer and his like minded cohort:

President Bush and Prime Minister Blair understand this important history regarding humanity and are providing a marvelous example of authentic leadership to a cynical world desperately in need of it. The overall policies that the U.S. are engaged in from abortion to Iraq under the leadership of President Bush seem to be a set of responsible, coherent, strategic policies consistent with a nation that champions human rights while seeking the defeat of global terrorism.