Via Atrios, a really horrifying letter to the editor from someone I'm ashamed to count a fellow American:

Executions would halt killings

We can stop the murders of American soldiers in Iraq by those who seek revenge or to regain their power. Whenever there is an assassination or another atrocity we should proceed to the closest mosque and execute five of the first Muslims we encounter.

After all this is a "Holy War" and although such a procedure is not fair or just, it might end the horror.

Machiavelli was correct. In war it is more effective to be feared than loved and the end result would be a more equitable solution for both giving us a chance to build a better Iraq for the Iraqis.

- EMORY METZ WRIGHT JR., M.D

The thing is, he may not even exist--this may be another example of astroturf, or perhaps just a lone moron who likes to use an important-sounding pseudonym to write this crap. I made a brief call to a good portion of the major hospitals in Tuscon, and not one of them had a record of a Dr. Emory Wright ever practicing or having privileges there. There's no listing for his practice in the Tucson Yellow Pages, nor in yp.yahoo.com or Verizon 411.

Update: this sick man does indeed exist. A few enterprising individuals on Eschaton turned up his licensing info; he's evidently retired and hasn't been practicing for some years.

Also, it appears the original letter has been deleted from their site, and the letters page two days later is filled with almost nothing but angry denunciations of that letter from across the board.

So, some faith in humanity restored.