The American Spectator

p> SKIN DEEP BR>Re: Lisa Fabrizio's The West Fling : p>As I read Ms. Fabrizio's ever-insightful article, I paused a moment to wonder — if Ray Nagin, got away with his “chocolate” New Orleans remark, would I be forgiven for pointing out this was uttered by a “cafe au lait” official, surrounded by butterscotch supporters? I guess not. In fact, it's skating on pretty thin ice to even suggest. But if Nagin is going to characterize the New Orleans population, he will have to employ licorice, dark chocolate, milk chocolate, caramel and so on, to French Vanilla. No sillier or more insulting than “chocolate.” p>Years ago I had a Chinese neighbor (once called Oriental, now Asian) who repeatedly referred to me as “you co-casions.” I asked him if I had ever categorized him as to his race (since re-labeled “ethnicity”). He said, “No.” I then said, “Well if you will stop call me “you co-casions,” I promise never to call you a Chink.” He laughed and that ended that. Today it might cause a Tong War. p>As you may have guessed, I find all this color-charting a bit tedious. BR>— Diane Smith BR>South San Francisco, California p>Ms. Fabrizio's witty and humorous analysis of the delusions that plague the American Left, leaves unsaid a deeper and more serious psychosis that we need to acknowledge. For the longest time, Conservatives have been troubled by the Left's seemingly unfazed attitude towards the oft expressed goals of radical Islam. We have been told in the most chilling of terms that the difference between Western Culture and radical Islam is the fact that we cherish life, whereas they cherish death. It is this raw expression of nihilism that makes radical Islam so dangerous. Nothing is out of bounds and no act of terror, no matter how despicable or cowardly is not deserving of approbation by its followers. Thousands dead are the cherished goal to obtain the fruits of paradise. p>So while I enjoyed Ms. Fabrizio's humorous chiding of the fantasy world constructed by the American Left in order to avoid the harsh reality that they are no longer in control, I perceive there exists a despair in their delusions that eerily dovetails with the tenants of radical Islam. The more bellicose and unhinged the American Left gets, the more they slide towards the nihilism of radical Islam. If the proponents of radical Islam cannot achieve their Islamic Paradise on Earth, they damn well will try and make sure that the rest of us will not live to fulfill ours. p>As the American Left observes the systematic remaking of the cherished institutions they once claimed complete ownership of, the more appealing the zero sum equation of radical Islam becomes. I don't think I overstate the case, not when the