Reply #42: I suppose you believe you have made some sort of point, but I fail to see it.

[scarletwoman]

I describe Ahmedinajad as a "fundamentalist" because he is a proponent of a conservative version of Islam -- as are the ruling Mullahs of Iran -- although certainly not in the same league of "fundamentalist" as the Taliban or the Saudis.

The definition of "demagogue" is: A leader who appeals to popular emotions and prejudices. (c.f. Webster's II New Riverside Pocket Dictionary -- which happens to be the dictionary I keep next to my computer)

While I personally consider ALL religion to be problematical at best, I do not believe that all followers of religion are by definition "stupid". Isaac Newton was religious, yet his intelligence is unquestioned.

And demagoguery in political leaders is hardly an unusual nor necessarily absolutely destructive trait. Huey P. Long, for example, who is almost universally described as a "demogogue", was neither stupid nor suicidal. While the ratio of good to bad in his career is open to debate, there is little question that he was both smart and possessed of a well-developed survival instinct.

There is no contradiction in what I wrote, there is only your own prejudice coloring your reading of it.

sw