I had quite a chat with a Samuel Adams saleswoman as we sat on the floor of the Vegas airport charging our computers. We talked about many things, but the funniest was who we thought had gotten bribed in this new 'no liquid' policy. I was telling her how I read cheap spy thrillers when I'm feeling particularly low-brow and the terrorist is always going to bring the world to an end with two drops of some deadly liquid -- far less than the 3-ounce minimum I've heard mentioned several times today.

We decided that someone in the ASSI (Airport Small Shop Industry) paid handsomely and is now reaping the benefits of charging .50 cents more for pop or water. The guy sitting next to us chimed in at that point and told us we could bring an empty water bottle through security and fill it at the water fountain -- which is information I wish I'd known this morning!

Question: I've just started reading a book called Islam by Karen Armstrong. I'll write more about it later, but here's a quote I don't think I agree with. What do you guys think?

Smaller Jewish groups continued to live in Medina, and later Jews, like Christians, enjoyed full religious liberty in the Islamic empires. Anti-semitism is a Christian vice. Hatred of the Jews became marked in the Muslim world only after the creation of the state of Israel in 1948 and the subsequent loss of Arab Palestine.