"The key phrase in Arabic is tahta tawila. It means ‘under the table.’ There are versions of the phrase in the languages of every Muslim country in the Middle East and South Asia.

It means that nothing is as it appears. Whatever is visible, whatever is stated or arrayed as proof, is irrelevant, intended to conceal what goes on behind the scenes—beneath the table—where everything important occurs.

The fact that nations in this part of the world accept such a dispiriting state of affairs is due largely to what didn’t happen here: the seventeenth-century’s Enlightenment, a period that saw the first foundational attempts at building concepts of accountability, reason-based analysis, and informed consent into a social contract between the rulers and the ruled.

America has recently tabled some of these principles in favor of a fierce tactical model."—Ron Suskind, The Way of the World

I don’t think Suskind went far enough here. Moreover, he disguises accountability behind the word "America." Who are those that have tried to roll back the Enlightenment and the rule of law? The Bush Administration, Republicans in the Senate and House, Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, Joe Lieberman, a 4/9 corrupt Supreme Court, and all of their supporters.

Yes, I looked at the U.S. government first because that is what is called for by the god/prophet of these almost unanimously Judeo-Christian slugs; look first to remove the beam from your own eye before attempting to remove the splinter from another’s.