re: how this thread is going
It's like this, Sam ...
Religious extremism threatens this country from within, without needing to appeal to alQueda. "Catholica" is of a piece with "ID", Robertson's appeal for assassination, and a host of other symptoms.
If you lived here, you might appreciate it more thoroughly -- but you don't.
We common Americans can't do squat about alQuaeda, or their plans for the Middle East. We can, and shall, protect and defend our own Constitution and the nation it governs, and we won't be distracted by foreign intrigues.