I know that expecting consistency from conservatives is like expecting your Springer Spaniel to jump up and sing a chorus of Gilbert and Sullivan’s “I am the very model of a modern Major General” but somehow I continue to yearn to see some of it. This is why today’s announcement of a proposed $60 billion (60,000 million) arms sale to Saudi Arabia is another chance for disappointment.

One of the most common memes in the recent spasm of Islamophobia here in the United States has been that all Muslims are constrained by their religion to spread Islam by any means necessary. It is this kind of intellectual laziness that allows bigots to pick on the small minority of Muslims in the United States. It is the classic broad brush which paints all Muslims with the same calumny as those demented assholes of the Islamic faith who practice terrorism.