Andrew Sullivan points us to this rather extraordinary interview Anderson Cooper did with Renee Ellmers , the Republican nominee for United States Congress in North Carolina's 2nd District. Elmers got some national attention by running an ad about the Islamic center near Ground Zero, which conflates "Muslims" and "terrorists," and asserts that the Islamic center is a "victory mosque" meant to cheer the tragedy of September 11. The interview has lots of alarming stuff, including when she implies that Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf might be a terrorist ("We don't know). But the most interesting part comes around 3:50, when Cooper talks to her about this "victory mosque" idea, which currently is running around the far right. Cooper points out that pretty much every religious group that ever took over any area built houses of worship, a list that would have to include the Vatican: COOPER: But don't all -- don't all religions do that? I mean, you're Catholic. Rome was conquered from the pagans and...

Whenever a new controversy comes up over the content of textbooks in Texas, we're reminded that because the state is so large, the demands it makes on textbook publishers can set an agenda for the whole country. The latest controversy concerns some conservatives' belief that textbooks have been indoctrinating students with pro-Islamic propaganda. Sure, it's insane, but hey -- Texas is really big, so those publishers are going to have to do whatever the state school board wants. Right? But what if the textbook publishers just said, "You know what? We've had it with you nutballs." After all, these companies aren't run by robots; they're run by people, people who have free will. And people in the publishing industry presumably have, at least on some level, a belief that knowledge is a good thing, and ignorance is a bad thing. There's nothing to stop them from saying to Texas, "These are the books we're selling. If you want to buy them, that's great. If you don't, that's too bad, but we'...