Thursday night I met a guy who, it turns out, was a soldier in town (Austin) from Ft. Hood. He was a nice chap. We chatted for a while, then when he complained about the overwhelming show of force by the local cops on their taxpayer horses, I took the opportunity - of course - to say something to the effect of, "All government does is tax, torture and murder people."

Then he asked me, "See this haircut?"

I nodded.

He said, "That means I’m a murderer."

To which I responded, not sarcastically, just surprised, "Oh. … Really?"

"Yup."

I asked, "Who do you murder?"

He answered in one word: "Hajis."

I wondered aloud if that meant everybody east of Jerusalem or what?

He said "Iraqis. Hajis." His girl grabbed his arm and off they went.