from The American Thinker by Peter Wilson Peter Wehner's Commentary magazine article, excepted in the Wall Street Journal , offers a list of the ad hominem insults aimed at Republicans during the government shutdown: Republicans are being referred to as jihadists, arsonists, anarchists, terrorists, extortionists, racists, gun-to-the-head hostage takers, grave threats to American democracy, the heirs of Joe McCarthy . . . people with a bomb strapped to their chest. In his Boston Globe column titled In N.Y., " Capitol: The ecstasy of destruction ," James Carroll repeats much of this list, adding a new one, comparing "Tea Party extremists" to the "swarm" of a biker gang that threatened tourists in New York City last week. In the words of the column's subtitle, "Motorcycle gangs wreak havoc-literally in N.Y., figuratively in D.C." Carroll writes: Rationality evaporates. The expression of anger becomes an end in itself, and justifies ...