I really like(d) your writing when I first discovered it for me to read and enjoy (a couple of months ago). But this article is challenging that. Why do you assume that altruism--"The Gaza withdrawal was not an act of altruism"--is a virtue when it is a vice. Also why are you so damn good at pinning things to reality with your writing and along with it a real sense of "yes, this guy knows what he's saying", but then you are wishy-washy on the obvious: "Sure, religious extremism is a problem. And Islam does seem more susceptible to it than other religions." Does "seem" to be more susceptible to it than other religions--duh, how man heads have Christians cut off because they were dissed by infidels, or how many French people killed for the same reason. Not to mention to many other, Islam-Muslim “sentiments”: “... you dis me muther’f’r and I’ll f’g kill you for it for real, not just as a threat but as a real death and then I’ll get absolution from my moral authorities—who everybody is afraid to criticize, including, or especially (some) Western intellectuals ...”. Islam is a Medieval Religion--unlike Christianity that has gone through a at least two reformations—this means, re-formulations, that resulted in toning down their FAITH based “reasoning”. To my knowledge Islam has not gone through even one such re-formulation and when they say things like, "We love death more than you (Gary) love life” and “In our (Muslim) religion there is no room for Caesars (i.e., reason)” why do you refuse to see it? This is what baffles me—super duper smart people who can’t see the obvious.