Just tell them they are F-ing morons, that would be their response!

I actually want to keep them as "old friends," but I would like to raise points that stop them in their tracks for a bit! I'd rather THEY be the only ones reduced to name-calling; it only makes our side look smarter and more right.

BTTT

To the "Arab racist" accusation, I would say, "If your fears are based entirely on race, perhaps. If you are afraid to fly with old Arab men and women, Arab families with small children, Arab teenaged couples who are holding hands and giggling off in a corner, and so forth, that's racist because you are suspecting them solely on the basis of race. But if you are only afraid of certain types, you are also factoring in sex, age, apparent occupation, and apparent family status. Thus you are not racist."

I would also add that, as they would extend their sympathy to any African-American whose family had been killed by the Klan, and would understand if they simply feared white men after that, they should extend the same sympathy to fellow Americans. If they CANNOT, that means they are holding Americans to higher standards than they are holding other groups to, and that is the soft bigotry of lowered expectations. That is, they secretly expect better of Americans because they secretly think we are more sophisticated than the "ethnic" types for whom they would make excuses.

Go to the Drudge Report and pull up this week's or last week's column by Michael Kelly an esteemed liberal columnist who delivers a stunning critique of knee jerk pacificism. Kelly quotes George Orwell in the 1942 Partisan Review as saying the "...objective of pacificism is pro-fascism." Anyway, you should leaflet with it. It's really a good piece. Good luck.

Also, remember the words of Patrick Henry: "Gentlemen cry, 'Peace, Peace'. There is no peace."

If we immediately deport all non-citizens that came from the middle east, you would have more confidence that the Arab you meet is a citizen and less likely to be a terrorist.

Most of my friends are liberals...yes HILLARY VOTERS..ouch...they know where I stand, I know where they stand...we try not to discuss it....sometimes the friendship for all it is, is worth more then the party line propoganda that they still believe. I know I am smarter and wiser...but in all reality...we are all friends..that is the most important thing of all.

Don't argue with them. Just load up on several brewskies and piss on their Birkenstocks!

Best FReegards...Mustang sends.

...and that is the soft bigotry of lowered expectations. That is, they secretly expect better of Americans because they secretly think we are more sophisticated than the "ethnic" types for whom they would make excuses.

Bless you! Where were you when I was on the phone with him earlier? I needed that! "The soft bigotry of lowered expectations" indeed! I used similar arguments during the biligual ed debates. I had to learn 2 different languages as an adult, and lo and behold I did it, and was able to work. WHO DO WE THINK WE ARE if we don't believe others as capable?!

Thanks; this is a GREAT point, using their own point against them.

An intelligent person declines to enter a battle of wits with an unarmed person. How smart are you for trying to have a contest of words with Liberals?

That being said, ask them how we won World War II? Did we do it with words? Did the right words bring peace in our relations with Japan, Italy and Germany? Then what brought about peace? Superior weaponry, determination and sacrifice.

How did we win the Cold War with USSR? Did the right words bring that about? What brought victory? Superior weaponry, determination and sacrifice.

What will win the war on terrorism? Have THEY come up with the magic words that will assuage these people who think nothing about killing thousands of innocent men, women and children in the blink of an eye? If so, please urge them to try their words. But also urge them to stay out of the way while the rest of us use our superior weaponry, determination and sacrifice -- the proven "peacemakers".

Re: NYT, WP, LAT, NPR, CNN

I would not call this "well-read". I would call anyone who gets news from these sources alone "brainwashed tools of the Left". (But no one ever accused me of being careful about what I say.) And no, it would not help to add the Seattle Times. : )

I would tell the friend who accused you of being a racist that if he is comfortable overriding common sense at a time like this, he is perfectly welcome to do that - but expecting someone else to check their brain at the door when it could be a matter of life and death is completely unreasonable. He is, of course, welcome at any time to demonstrate his warm feelings of inclusiveness for thirty-something Muslim men who are not citizens of this country by say, putting his wife and kids on an airplane where men fitting that profile are aboard and staying home himself.

You might remind your friends that racial profiling, while uncomfortable and unfortunate for innocent people who are inconvenienced and/or embarrassed by such things, is not the worst thing that can happen to a person. Something worse is losing three of the best and brightest black Washington D.C. school children, who believed they were going on a field trip to California but were instead flown against their will into a corner of the Pentagon.

We're all experiencing discomfort right now. The discomfort we feel losing our feeling of security regarding air travel is, I dare say, just as bad as having someone ask you questions at the airport. Knowing when you or your wife or your child boards a plane that it could be used by terrorists to kill you and people on the ground, or shot down by fighter jets - gee, I don't know - I think it ranks right up there with being asked to find another means of transportation besides air travel on the discomfort scale.

Offer the jackass a plane ticket to Afghanistan, then call him a racist when he declines.

Ask them how America "deserved" this. They will say we are imperialists blah blah. Then ask if America is responsible for the actions of right-wing paramilitaries that we funded in places like Latin America. They will say YES. Then ask them if Iran and Iraq are not responsible for attacks against us carried out with their funding. It's a neat little trap! If America deserved to be attacked for criminals we funded (in their opinion), then if Iraq or Iran supported Bin Laden they deserve to be attacked, too!

If we immediately deport all non-citizens that came from the middle east...

But that would hinder us from building a "coalition." </sarcasm>

(Don't need no stinking coalition)

Sucker them into telling you that the proper response to the attack is to send foreign aid to improve the Afghanistani's lives instead of bombing them. Then explain that that's what we HAVE been doing, and it didn't work.

Point out that our "anti-Islam" foreign policy of late has included bombing putative Christians to protect Muslims in Bosnia and Kosovo, and to protect Muslims from other Muslims in Kuwait, an "imperialistic" attack if there ever was one.

Ask them why they're so durn-sure that Israel will do anything we want them to viz. the Palestinians when the Israelis have already used Americans (Pollard) as spies against us and bombed our ship the U.S.S. Liberty?

Ask them why they think this is similar to Vietnam when we haven't fired a shot yet and have taken thousands of innocent casualties.

Ask them why freeing Tibet from Communist domination is cool but freeing Afghanistan wasn't.

Ask them if reflexive anti-Americanism isn't the real root of the problem.

Ask them why liberals are such mindless, lockstep, goosestepping jerks.

Yipes, I misquoted Orwell--I went back and checked the quote, which should read: "Pacifism is objectively pro-fascist." My apologies. Please do check out Kelly's column in the 9/26 Washington Post. You can retrieve it @ WashingtonPost.com or link through Drudge.

Will look up that column. Great!

Yes, Patrick Henry will come in handy tomorrow. I already had the "As for me..." quote, but yours is a great one. War has been declared ON US.

Best advice. Don't go mingle with them. Stay with your own kind. It will be a much more enjoyable evening. Besides, who has friends like that? Yuk.