Rambling Rhodes

He took his U.S. passport along with $1,800 in cash. He said the money came from a sum of $10,000 his mother had given him after he gave her some stock tips that earned a 25 percent return.

You know, I'm not sure the problem here is that this kid's not "very bright."

I think he's just intelligent enough to have meaningful interests (politics rather than, say, sports) and ambitious enough about exploring them to take risks most people think are insane. I mean, you could just as easily look at anyone who signs up for the military right now and say, "Oh, well they must be stupid because they're putting themselves in harm's way." What this kid did was obviously dangerous but he also seems to have had clear goals for the trip. Everyone's talking about what a stupid thing it was to do, but he pulled it off without getting killed which is more than lots of professional journalists and soldiers can say.

We send 18 year olds over there to get shot at. At least this kid's got some better camouflage.

Joshua, he went over there without, apparently, doing much in the way of cultural research, and got through most of his adventure, it seems, through a whole lot of luck. But, I will hand it to him, at least he emerged from the experience with some apparent wisdom lost on many others, that being:

"There is a struggle in Iraq between good and evil, between those striving for freedom and liberty and those striving for death and destruction," he wrote. "Those terrorists are not human but pure evil. For their goals to be thwarted, decent individuals must answer justice's call for help."

Which I actually had to go back and search for, by the way, because that part was deleted from the MSNBC article, for some odd reason, which I would suggest bias, but to you would say: "Find a new joke."

he went over there without, apparently, doing much in the way of cultural research, and got through most of his adventure, it seems, through a whole lot of luck. But, I will hand it to him, at least he emerged from the experience with some apparent wisdom lost on many others,

Without doing much in the way of cultural research except growing up with parents who were born and raised there. In any event, foolish and ill-informed-- except for that part where you and he agree, in which case he's wise. Check.

But you're just calling it like you see it. No bias on your part. Your opinions are just based on facts.

Yes, Prof. Snape., you're always correct.