Recommended: The Stink: What makes the worst lies in the Middle East acceptable?

I recommend Bruce Thornton"s recent post, The Stink: What make the worst lies in the Middle East acceptable? Once again he points out the hypocrisy and double standard that pervades so much of the world's views on the Middle East. I have no doubt that the majority of those in the Middle East, though they live within a different culture than ours, are decent people who would prefer to live a quiet life in peace and prosperity. That fact does not in any way excuse the abominable actions of those power-hunger thugs among them who stoke religious and nationalistic feelings for their own ends, and we ought not to confuse our empathy for the average Middle Easterners with acceptance in any form of the lies and actions of the unprincipled minority that currently seem to control events there.