There is an expression that the more things change the more they stay the same. Christopher Caen wrote an excellent column in today's San Francisco Examiner about the this phenomenon. If you haven't read it yet, click here. I wish he would write a column five days a week as his dad did for so many years. He displays a good talent for writing but I guess he just does not want the hassle of so many deadlines.

On a more serious note, if you worry about the religious fundamentalists in other countries, I think you should worry about them here too as well. There seems to be a number of similarities which is pointed out in this excellent article by Willliam Thatcher Dowell.