A CLARIFICATION OF TERMS: I wish the media would stop referring to the killing of hostages as executions. Perhaps I am looking at the term too much from its American perspective; in the United States a person is executed after a trial and after exhaustive appeals to higher courts to make sure the condemned man was given a fair trial and that his rights were not violated or that the court that condemned him did not commit a procedural violation in sentencing the man to death. None of this occurred in the cases of Daniel Pearl, Nick Berg, Paul Johnson, or Kim Sun-il. These people were not executed; they were murdered by savages. For those of you who may object to my use of the word savage, finding it over judgemental or lacking in concern for the historical forces that have shaped these people, tough shit. But come now, this is The Passing Parade; "We are growing serious, and let me tell you, that's the next step to being dull." --Joseph Addison.