But I mainly wanted to point out the "source" of the humorous meme and indicate what drove me to thinking about it. I probably should have put it in Politics. Sorry.

Hilzoy is a prof at Johns Hopkins - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hilary_Bok She's a little young to have had first-hand experience with a lot of the Vietnam-era stuff, but she probably remembers quite a bit of the TV coverage (I'm a little younger, but I remember it). She can't have the depth of feeling and nuance of someone who lived through those times as an adult, so I'm not surprised that she has a different view - and one that doesn't see the possible shades of gray.

Wikipedia seems to have a good summary of the various incarnations of the Weathermen here: http://en.wikipedia....man_(organization) (You'll probably need to add the trailing parenthesis manually.) You're right that some of the same battles are still being fought. Even some of the same language is being used!

Personally, I think it was appropriate for Ayers to give his side, for the record, after what happened during the campaign. I'm not sure I agree with his summary of what the Weathermen/WUO/etc. were about, but it's clear to me that it's a more nuanced position than he was caricatured as having during the campaign (no surprise there, eh?).

Thanks.

Cheers,
Scott.