Scapegoats and Scrapegoats

Best article of the weekend, thus far, has to be Jill's entry from Brilliant at Breakfast on shifts in Americans' perceptions about the civil rights of Arabs and Muslims in our country. She is discussing this study which indicates that nearly half of all Americans are in favor of restricting the rights of Arabs and Muslims in the name of "national security" and the "war on terror."

The survey showed that 27 percent of respondents supported requiring all Muslim Americans to register where they lived with the federal government. Twenty-two percent favored racial profiling to identify potential terrorist threats. And 29 percent thought undercover agents should infiltrate Muslim civic and volunteer organizations to keep tabs on their activities and fund-raising.

Jill's own comments on this make it a winner. Just a taste for you:

Why not just cut to the chase and make them wear yellow scimitars on their clothes? Or just open the camps? Why even go through the pretense that it's going to result in anything other than genocide? What do they think we are, stupid? (Answer: Yes.)