A man buys some fencing at a Home Depot and uses it to keep intruders out of his house. One night, after a number of incidences, an intruder cuts open the fence for the purpose of breaking in. Unfortunately, he becomes stuck and cuts himself severely in the process. As a result, he bleeds to death.

The family of the intruder not only sue the homeowner, but sue the manufacturer of the fencing.

Now it should be noted that there was nothing wrong with the fence. It was entirely the fault of the intruder that caused the death.

Sounds crazy, no?

While it sounds outrageous to you and me, it's precisely what has taken place here in Chicago. While admittedly there is no lawsuit pending, what happened here is eerily similar to what took place yesterday at the Caterpillar, Inc. annual shareholder's meeting.

As many of you are aware, a young, naive, misguided woman was crushed to death by a bulldozer while using herself as a human shield. Rachel Corrie, was a member of the International Solidarity Movement, a communist-anarchist group who openly support Palestinian terrorism. To give you some details from the incident, noted professor, author and Middle East expert Steven Plaut, had this to say:

Corrie set up shop in the Gaza Strip, where she and her ISM comrades spent their days trying to harass and provoke Israeli troops and interfere with Israel's anti-terrorist military operations. They would set up obstacles on roads to prevent Israeli troops and otherwise assist and defend the terrorists. The ISM is probably the campus organization most upfront about its support for the Palestinian "right" to engage in terrorism, and that is saying quite a lot these days!

In one confrontation with the Israelis, Corrie was trying to block an army bulldozer that was knocking down homes of terrorists and buildings hiding tunnels through which weapons and explosives were being smuggled into Israel. These tunnels brought weapons from Egypt to the Gaza city of Rafiah. One of these homes might have been that which Corrie's parents describe as that of an "innocent pharmacist." Corrie and her ISM comrades wanted to help protect the Gaza smuggling tunnels. Rachel Corrie put herself in a position where the bulldozer driver could not see her, and she was dragged under the heavy machine. She died in a PLO ambulance or hospital shortly thereafter. The ISM then issued a host of "eyewitness" reports about the accident, which turned out to be fabrications. The simple fact of the matter was that Corrie had figured the Israeli bulldozer driver could be cowed into backing off if he saw her blocking his access to the terrorist house; she probably figured correctly, except that he did not see her from his limited-visibility window in the rig.

Yesterday, during their annual meeting, Craig and Cindy Corrie, the parents of the young, not so innocent girl, and other supporters of Palestinian murderers, crashed the party in order to persuade the company into divesting in Israel. Advocates of the sales cutoff said the easily recognizable "Cat" equipment has become a symbol of human rights violations in the occupied territoriCertaintain religious groups have criticized the company for continuing to sell Israel the bulldozers and have promised to divest their shares.

Basically, what this really means is that they want Caterpillar to pay for Corrie's death. They want Caterpillar to fall to her knees and admit that their daughter's actions didn't cause her death, Caterpillar did. Like the intruder above, it must have been the fence tkillediled him. Or how about the State of Israel? How dare the try to protect themselves? Destroy a terrorists house? Not on my watch. Forget about the fact that this particular home was used for the smuggling of weapons uto toi target innocent Israeli civilians!

In an act of courage - something rarely seen nowadays - Caterpillar told them to basically "piss off". Caterpillar Chairman James Owens put it bluntly, expressing "heartfelt sympathies and concerns" for casualties in the Middle East conflict, "(but) we corporately cannot resolve it."

I'll tell you what, it takes a lot of nerve to not buckle under pressure from terrorist sympathizers. At least you know he probably won't be voting Democrat in the next election! I am so impressed by it all, I may actually consider a Caterpillar as my next vehicle. Maybe I can get one of those bumper stickers that read, "I don't brake for young, naive, misguided terrorist sympathizers."