Musings on the state of the world

This is mainly Joe's fault , since when he said that he was seriously concerned about the state of the nation, I of course wanted to know what he was talking about, since he's a) my friend and b) a pretty smart, not-prone-to-hysteria kind of guy.

So, now I'm concerned too.

I'm having trouble still weeding out the chaff from the wheat--obvious hysteria is easy to spot, but there are some issues I'm still trying to wrap my head around. The state of the Middle East and of Islam in general is certainly one of those topics for me. I recently had the strangest experience of someone I know, who is from Palestine, unloading a bunch of anti-Semetic rhetoric (Jews run the media, Jews run the economy)) and then saying,"but if I say this, I'm labeled anti-Semetic." Well, duh. But it was a good reminder of the huge gap between these two points of view; he's speaking from the viewpoint of the Gaza Strip, I'd venture to say. And his view of Islam is very positive. I have to say, my view is not so positive, personally. Any thoughts?