Humor is a funny thing. Show the same thing to various people, and some will think it's funny, others, not. I can only wonder why, out of the universe of possibilities, Karl Rove, noted as "Bush’s Brain," would choose to say, even "jokingly," that his hobby is "tearing the tops off small animals...headless"

It was only a joke, ya know, made by a man facing the pressures of increasing scrutiny.

But we do know that there's a correlation between cruelty to animals and sociopathic behavior.

"And what is the foundational characteristic of every sociopath? A profound, pervasive, fundamental lack of empathy. The sociopath attends to only his own needs, and feels only his own pain. If the pain of others interferes with his needs, it is casually ignored. And if the pain of others becomes his need, it is relentlessly pursued....empathy isn't administered as an injection; it is learned over time. The young child who throws a rock at a flock of pigeons isn't so much endangering a bird as he is giving us the chance to intervene at the crossroads: We can teach empathy, or we can encourage cruelty....

The sociopath may lack empathy, but he (or she) is an expert at exploiting it in others. Any domestic violence professional knows of women who remained with abusers because of threats to harm a beloved pet. Any CPS caseworker can tell you about cases in which a child abuser also hurt—or killed—the victim's pet. Any sex crimes detective can tell you that child molesters know a puppy or a kitten is a far more effective lure than candy.

...interactions between children and animals tell us about ourselves...we have a window of opportunity — childhood — within which to redirect the production of sociopaths. The antidote is the development of empathy. And observation and analysis of children's interaction with animals is the key to that door."

"Sociopathy is chiefly characterized by something wrong with the person's conscience. They either don't have one, it's full of holes like Swiss cheese, or they are somehow able to completely neutralize or negate any sense of conscience or future time perspective. Sociopaths only care about fulfilling their own needs and desires - selfishness and egocentricity to the extreme. Everything and everybody else is mentally twisted around in their minds as objects to be used in fulfilling their own needs and desires. They often believe they are doing something good for society, or at least nothing that bad."

What are the ramifications if sociopaths control government? If whole groups of people become followers, deluded by nationalistic tendencies, religious doctrines and ethnocentricities? Whole studies have been done about Bush, but we as a nation are only beginning to critically evaluate the impact of our foreign policy's imperial adventurism on our status as a global superpower.

As we watched Congress debate continuing funds for an immoral, illegal, "preemptive" war upon another sovereign nation to pillage their black gold under the appealing guise of "bringing democracy to the Middle East" we wonder why terrorism, especially youthful terrorism, is taking hold and growing.

CNN’s Christian Amanpour reported in her documentary "The War Within" that young Muslims in Britain "are angry about the war, angry that their country so devotedly follows U.S. foreign policy, angry at what they see as a worldwide war against Muslims and Islam. A London youth worker, Hanif Qadir, explained that 'the message of extremism preys on many kids who see no way out of their ethnic ghettos. Those youth,' he said, 'have always had vices - - street crime, drugs, car thefts. But then now you've got another threat,' Hanif Qadir told Amanpour. 'The new threat is radicalism. It's a cause. Every young man wants a cause...What struck us most was how deeply the Iraq war has radicalized today's generation of young Muslims in Britain.'"

For empathetic people, it's not too hard to understand how the dynamics of terrorism radicalize youth. Youth, in their zeal and inexperience, are vulnerable to exploitation by political forces. Show Muslim youth the beauty and culture that was Iraq and contrast it with the (WARNING: EXTREMELY GRAPHIC CONTENT) diabolical horrors our American public foreign policy inflicts on the Iraqi civilians, and it’s not hard to understand their radicalism.

Figuring the way out isn’t hard. "Just do it!" the old Nike commercial encouraged; it's still valid advice. But that doesn’t address the long-term threats we, and our children for generations to come, face. America the superpower has demonstrated for all the world to see the weakness and vulnerabilities of its military might. We are part of the global community, and as such, we need to demonstrate true world leadership: “We owe it to ourselves, and the country that we will pass off to our children to relearn and teach the tools of reason, logic, clarity, dissent, civility and debate.”