Vendetta: Heroism, Terrorism or Patriotism?  'The tree of
liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of
patriots and tyrants.' ~ Thomas Jefferson  Maybe you have seen
that movie, V for Vendetta. Surprisingly, if you click on the
flags on the website that indicate specific countries, you will
notice the movie hasn't opened in many countries.  What will the
Mexicans make of it? The Japanese, with their legends of
Samurai? The Turks and the Israelis? The French?  If Thomas
Jefferson is correct--and how can he not be--most viewers will
side with the hero, a horribly disfigured victim of government
imprisonment and torture. V protests a futuristic, totalitarian
government not simply with words, but with violent actions, what
some viewers might consider terrorist deeds.  Unless of course
you believe, as a staunch conservative Republican once believed,
that 'Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice.' Barry
Goldwater said that, and few consider him a terrorist today, but
a conservative patriot.