It's so tiresome to see the same old canards day after day in the papers and in blogs. One thing that bugs me is the use of the term neo-con. Poeple seem to want to associate it with everything evil. Right wing religious types are neocons. Neocons want to keep women in the home raising kids. Neocons want to take over the Middle East and steal all the oil.

Sorry people. None of that is what a neocon really is. And just because you decide someone has a particular motivation for doing something doesn't mean that that is their real motivation. There is no disconnect between thinking invading Iraq was a good idea, and genuinely wanting all of humanity to live in peace in prosperity. And most neocons are not religious nuts, if anything a real neocon feels a sort of disdain for very religious types, as that sort of extremist tends to make decisions based on the Bible instead of the more grounded reality a neocon lives in. In fact, I would go so far as to say that neocons, at their core, are people who apply logic instead of emotion to the issues confronting us in the world today. A neocon supports free speech, a strong military, and a government willing to use that military to make the world a better place. What defines better? How about the rule of democracy, the felling of murderous despots, and keeping nukes out of the hands of people who either imply or state directly that they would be more than willing to use the weapons to kill lots of people.