Well, here's another one that signals the end of Freedom as we know it. Google image search is now censoring results for the search "Abu Ghraib". If you enter the name of the infamous Iraqi prison into Yahoo or Lycos image search, you get the expected hits; unfortunate evidence of American mishandling of the Iraqi war in the form of Lynndie England, et al. However, look up the same words on Google Image Search and -gasp!- the photos are no where to be found. Apparently, Google is bowing to pressure from the US Government to remove links to the pictures.
As slashdot puts it, "I'm guessing that this is another case of our administration confusing "National Security" with "Politically Undesirable".
So what does this mean? A lot of things.
I'll tell you what my final conclusion is.
I believe that the West and Islam are headed towards an unavoidable repeat of circa 1095 AD. Whether it be the States or Europe, fundamentalism is driving both sides (because make no mistake, Bush is a Christian Fundamentalist - just read about his latest faith-based appointment here.) and we are heading to a point of no return, if we haven't already passed it.
I believe we will soon find ourselves incapable of separating the West from the War, and we may have to simply live with the uncomfortable consequences, which will likely be a perusal of the irradiation of Islam from the face of the earth, lest they do the same to us. Like the original crusades, I doubt everyone will be behind them, but each of us will be forced to embrace the worst, most fundamental viewpoints simply to survive. At such a polarized place, there's not much difference between "Christianity" and "Islam."
This week in Holland, filmmaker Theo van Gogh was murdered by a 2nd generation Islamic fundamentalist, who stabbed him in the chest with a note that threatened other Dutch celebrities with anti-Islamic viewpoints. The jihad has arrived even here.