Zealots

As expected, the Maryland General Assembly voted to abolish capital punishment ("Ending executions," March 19). Leftism is the most dynamic and vibrant religion in the West today. In all areas of life, from morals to education, economics and art, it is replacing the traditional American Judeo-Christian value system. The Leftist ideology says it is elevated, just, compassionate and kind to allow all murderers to retain their most precious possession, their life. Hence, they think they are kind and just to the next group of murdered kindergartners, their families and friends, when the savage murderer sits and has lunch in prison.

As expected, the Maryland General Assembly voted to abolish capital punishment ("Ending executions," March 19). Leftism is the most dynamic and vibrant religion in the West today. In all areas of life, from morals to education, economics and art, it is replacing the traditional American Judeo-Christian value system. The Leftist ideology says it is elevated, just, compassionate and kind to allow all murderers to retain their most precious possession, their life. Hence, they think they are kind and just to the next group of murdered kindergartners, their families and friends, when the savage murderer sits and has lunch in prison.

ONLY IN CALIFORNIA would a city that is less than 50 years old have a historical society. But in California, anything more than a couple of decades old is considered historic and anything that is a century old is considered to be ancient history. Nevertheless, the Foster City Historical Society has performed a useful service by publishing a little book titled simply Foster City. It details the building of an attractive middle-class community with about 30,000 people on what was once swamp land.

America, you are an idiot. You are a moocher, a zombie, soulless, mouth-breathing, ignorant, greedy, self-indulgent, envious, shallow and lazy. The foregoing is a summation of "analysis" from conservative pundits and media figures -- Cal Thomas, Ted Nugent, Bill O'Reilly, et cetera -- seeking to explain Mitt Romney's emphatic defeat. They seem to have settled on a strategy of blaming the voters for not being smart enough or good enough to vote as they should have. Because America wasn't smart enough or good enough, say these conservatives, it shredded the Constitution, bear-hugged chaos, French-kissed socialism, and died.

THE REPUBLICAN juggernaut that came rolling out of the last election to take over Congress no longer looks invincible, thus confirming once again that zealotry and practical politics don't mix very well.Zealots in this case are ultra-conservatives in the House who actually believe they have been ordained by the voters to impose their "Contract with America" upon an electorate supposedly seething with tax-cut fever, anti-abortion sentiment and an overwhelming urge to shred the social welfare safety net.Their foes are not the Democrats, whose enmity can be taken for granted.

Carrying out President Bill Clinton's promise of dire punishment of the bombers of U.S. embassies in Africa once again raises the old ghost of the CIA's war against the Soviets in Afghanistan from 1979 to 1989. It also involves major trouble for old allies in that war.The chief suspect thus far in the assaults on the two embassies is the Saudi construction tycoon Osama bin Laden, 45, who was described in the early 1990s as a mastermind of international terrorism by the U.S. State Department and other Western agencies.

"Inspired" by a dark chapter in American history, September Dawn presents a ham-fisted cautionary tale of religious fanaticism that would have been hooted out of even 19th-century theaters as melodrama of the most lurid kind. On Sept. 11, 1857, a band of Mormon zealots attacked a wagon train of 120 settlers heading for California. The ensuing slaughter that took place in the Utah pass known as Mountain Meadows is largely undisputed history. But other questions about the raid -- especially whether members of the Mormon hierarchy, possibly even church leader Brigham Young, ordered it -- have been hotly debated.

"Trust Us, We're Experts: How Industry Manipulates Science and Gambles With Your Future" by Sheldon Rampton and John Stauber (Tarcher / Putnam, 360 pages, $24.95). Commercial interest groups and companies, and the public relations people who work for them, have virtually destroyed the ostensible objectivity of non-profits, university authorities, influential charities and much of the news media, according to this angry and often well-documented tract. Drug companies buy approvals from prestigious good-works organizations; physicians writing letters to medical journals have been well paid by tobacco interests.

"Angel of Death," by Jack Higgins. 311 pages. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. $23.95The ingredients of Jack Higgins' 23rd mystery-thriller, " Angel of Death," are these: unsavory elements of the Irish Republican Army; the IRA's most unsavory Protestant opponents. Also, murderous zealots in Britain calling themselves " January 30." Also, murderous zealots in Lebanon. Also, plutonium that is for sale.Also, Sean Dillon, IRA gunman-turned-secret-policeman, VTC accompanied by Scotland Yard's eager, admiring, attractive, unattached Chief Inspector, Hannah Bernstein.

ATLANTA -- For many sophisticated conservatives, Mitt Romney is an appealing presidential candidate. Before he served a respectable term as governor of Massachusetts, he rescued the scandal-plagued 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics. He has also been very successful in business, making millions as the co-founder of a private equity investment firm. Though his hyper-pandering to the narrow-minded in this campaign has cost him some honor, he's still smart, accomplished and photogenic. He's also a Mormon, a biographical note that has caused considerable consternation among the ultraconservative Christians who make up a sizable portion of the GOP's core constituency.

If you think Rick Santorum is a weird, pious wackadoo, try being a female walking around certain ultra-Orthodox neighborhoods in Israel with your ankles showing. Mr. Santorum's near-victory in the Iowa caucuses last week raised the volume on some of his more paranoid kvetchings about the moral breakdown of society - gay marriage being a slippery slope to marrying your pet, "Christendom" being under attack, birth control being "not OK" even for married couples.

ATLANTA -- For many sophisticated conservatives, Mitt Romney is an appealing presidential candidate. Before he served a respectable term as governor of Massachusetts, he rescued the scandal-plagued 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics. He has also been very successful in business, making millions as the co-founder of a private equity investment firm. Though his hyper-pandering to the narrow-minded in this campaign has cost him some honor, he's still smart, accomplished and photogenic. He's also a Mormon, a biographical note that has caused considerable consternation among the ultraconservative Christians who make up a sizable portion of the GOP's core constituency.

"Inspired" by a dark chapter in American history, September Dawn presents a ham-fisted cautionary tale of religious fanaticism that would have been hooted out of even 19th-century theaters as melodrama of the most lurid kind. On Sept. 11, 1857, a band of Mormon zealots attacked a wagon train of 120 settlers heading for California. The ensuing slaughter that took place in the Utah pass known as Mountain Meadows is largely undisputed history. But other questions about the raid -- especially whether members of the Mormon hierarchy, possibly even church leader Brigham Young, ordered it -- have been hotly debated.

ONLY IN CALIFORNIA would a city that is less than 50 years old have a historical society. But in California, anything more than a couple of decades old is considered historic and anything that is a century old is considered to be ancient history. Nevertheless, the Foster City Historical Society has performed a useful service by publishing a little book titled simply Foster City. It details the building of an attractive middle-class community with about 30,000 people on what was once swamp land.

PHILADELPHIA - Every time I return from the Middle East, I thank God I live in a country that separates church and state. The Middle East - and the Afghanistan of the Taliban - offer frightening lessons about what can happen when that barrier between church and state is shattered. Too bad those in Congress rushing to intervene in the tragic case of Terri Schiavo are so blind to the risk of injecting religion into government. In this disorienting era of globalization, where few can escape bombardment by disturbing satellite and Internet images, many people turn to religion to regain their moorings.

PORTLAND, Maine - So it takes an ecumenical group of zealots charging anti-Catholicism in an ad running in a state with a Greek Orthodox senator to make me fully understand the word chutzpah. I guess this is what it means to live in a multicultural society? This display of sheer gall began with the nomination of Alabama Attorney General William H. Pryor Jr. to the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Mr. Pryor is anti-abortion, anti-gay rights, pro-school prayer. And Catholic. He most notably said, "God has chosen, through his son Jesus Christ, this time and this place for all Christians ... to save our country and save our courts."

John F. Kennedy, in his Pulitizer-Prize-winning book, "Profiles in Courage," gave three reasons why it is so difficult for elected officials to be courageous. First, all politicians want to be liked. Second, politicians want to get reelected. And third, interest groups exert enormous pressure on legislators to get their way. Ignoring all these factors is often difficult for lawmakers.It certainly was in Annapolis over the past two weeks. A surprising number of legislators, especially from Baltimore County, caved in on all three counts and voted against a package of new taxes to keep state and local governments from running aground.

PHILADELPHIA -- When Karen L. Martynick ran in a Republican primary for Congress last spring, her two sons turned out to help her at polling places.But her younger son, Daniel, then 15, was confronted by supporters of a rival Republican candidate who disagreed with her on the abortion issue. "They told him," Martynick recalls, " 'Your mother's a baby-killer. She has blood on her hands.' "This is not the kind of politics that Martynick, 44, bargained for when she began a long career as a Republican activist that has led to her present post as a county commissioner in suburban Chester County and a second-place finish among five candidates in that primary.

JERUSALEM - Polls indicate that Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is heading toward a landslide victory in the Jan. 28 Israeli election. Given his performance during his short tenure, his widespread support is astounding. Although Mr. Sharon is still considered to be Mr. Security, people are less secure today than before he took office 20 months ago. Since the eruption of the second Palestinian uprising, or intifada, Sept. 29, 2000, the day after Mr. Sharon visited the Temple Mount, 681 Israelis have been killed and 4,823 have been wounded, the majority in the past 20 months, Israeli army figures show.

CHARLES MOOSE, the police chief in Montgomery County, thinks it was unwise for the governor of Maryland to call the sniper a coward, apparently because such public name-calling is counterproductive in the delicate "dialogue" the police are trying to establish with this killer. "The governor's training is not in the law enforcement field," Moose said. "I am convinced the governor will never do that again." And he hasn't. But I wouldn't knock him if he did. Really. What's more cowardly than what this sniper has been doing?