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Couple of thoughts on the last few posts:
1. Iran. So far as I can tell there is a race on: will the good people of Iran, who are sick of the abusive regime and eager to live as normal people, succeed in toppling the mullahs before the mullahs make themselves much more powerful by getting a nuclear weapon and redirecting the country's energies to external "enemies" (which is the oldest dictatorship trick in the book)? There appear to be some fissures already, particularly in the areas of Iran that are inhabited by ethnic minorities like Azeris and Kurds. I hope the process of holding the mullahs accountable accelerates. Iran is a historically rich culture that is being brought to ruin by a small collection of fanatics. This could be, in the right circumstances, the ideal country to be the next secular (or at least quasi-secular) muslim-majority democracy. And I believe a majority of Iranians want it to be so. [Host, Iran is the classic example of an established religion giving the religion a bad name. Lots of Iranians are REALLY pissed at the theocrats.]
2. Host, if I'm a moderate (which, by your framing, I sort of am, though it's not how I'd characterize myself, which is more along the lines of freethinking nondoctrinaire libertarian), perhaps that helps you place some of what's written here along the spectrum. I believe one theme of much of what I have posted has been that people should calm down. I still think much of what gets written here is horribly overwrought. As I have said before, this is a fundamentally strong and decent country, and when we have had excesses they have tended to correct themselves over time. I'll certainly concede that what one considers an "excess" is open to debate. But the basic pattern in the US is that it seems to do a pretty good job at self-correction. Give Madison and Hamilton their due.
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