At (of course) FOXNews.com:

Several activists have called for him to be purged from the Republican Party (given what the GOP stands for these days, perhaps that's not such a bad idea). One former staffer declared Paul an "embarrassment" and announced he'd challenge Paul for his seat in Congress.

This is all patently absurd. Actually, it's offensive. No one knows precisely what morbid formula inspired the Sept. 11 attacks. Most likely, it was some mix of U.S. foreign policy exacerbating radical Islamists' already deep-seeded contempt for Western values.

But to suggest that we shouldn't even consider that our actions overseas might have unintended consequences is, frankly, just ignorant. And to attempt to silence anyone who says otherwise as outside the bounds of civilized debate is doubly ignorant.

If you get stung by a hornet, it makes sense to see if there's a hornets' nest near your home and, if there is, to exterminate it. It doesn't make sense to forge out looking for hornets' nests anywhere you can find them, smacking them with sticks. You're bound to get stung again.

It also makes sense to see if there's something you're doing that's attracting hornets, like perhaps storing perfume by a window. None of this suggests you deserved to be stung; it only means you're rationally looking at what caused you to be stung in the first place and trying to prevent it from happening again.

Those who find Rep. Paul's foreign policy vision fringe-like or crazy would do well to read what other libertarian non-interventionists were saying before the Iraq war began. They were remarkably prescient. Some even predicted a Sept. 11-like attack years before it happened. For example:

— The Cato Institute's Gene Healy: "After our quick victory, and after the "Arab street" fails to rise, you're going to hear a lot of self-congratulation from the hawks. But the fallout from this war is likely to be long-term, in the form of a protracted and messy occupation, and an enhanced terrorist recruitment base."

— Ted Galen Carpenter, also of Cato: "The inevitable U.S. military victory would not be the end of America's troubles in Iraq. Indeed, it would mark the start of a new round of headaches. Ousting Saddam would make Washington responsible for Iraq's political future and entangle the United States in an endless nation-building mission beset by intractable problems."

Gotta add the closing statement of the article:  "The people who were wrong were rewarded. And they go right on mocking the people who were right."

'Twas ever thus.

Well, there are a lot of things, mostly having to do with how people treat other people.  But this is about how people treat some animals.

Now, I realize that parts of San Antonio have varmint problems.  Squirrels are everywhere, Olmos Park is completely overrun with raccoons, and then there's possums and skunks.  I've seen coyotes up in the northwest off Tezel Road..  I understand the need to control these critters.  Furthermore, I have nothing against trapping as a means of control.  Heck, when I was younger I made lots of money from trapping fur-bearing varmints and taking the pelts to the furrier who came to town every other Friday during fur season.

People like to use cage traps because, I guess, they think steel traps are inhumane.  Maybe they are.  Something else that's inhumane is leaving an animal in a cage trap until it dies of dehydration.  I guess people are too wimpy to dispose of a pest swiftly and humanely, so they just leave it in the trap until it dies, and then throw it in the trash.  Disgusting.  Have the 'nads to finish it off so it doesn't suffer through three or four days of ravenous thirst before it finally dies.

One other thing:  when I find a trapped animal in someone's backyard, I release it.  Those animals are not caught during the daytime (except for squirrels).  They are nocturnal and are trapped during the night.  If you have traps set, you check them first thing in the morning and dispatch any varmint that was caught.  Check them before you leave for work, before you take your morning shower.  Turn on the coffee pot and go check the trap.  Finish that poor beast off so it doesn't have to suffer.  You don't leave them in there until you think they're dead enough to throw out four or five days later.

I have found far too many animals dead in an allegedly "humane" cage trap.  Including squirrels.  That's why I release them.  If you don't have the guts to take care of them quickly, leave them alone.

Also, if you are going to set a steel trap, a word advice.  You aren't going to catch anything with a steel trap set in the wide open, on top of the ground, without any bait in sight.  The 'coons are just going sit on your fence and laugh at you all night long.  All you're going to do is piss off the meter reader when he climbs down off your fence and nearly steps in it.  And you're liable to discover that your steel trap has mysteriously been sprung and hung from a rafter on your back porch.

Here:  Domestic Terrorist T-Shirt.

Via War On Guns.