In the Sunday New York Times, there's one sentence that's should frighten you even before you get to the verb:

In a dim hospital office with a Kalashnikov lying on his desk, Mr. Zubaidi, one of the clerics who have taken control of the hospitals, ...

Lovely: A Baghdad hospital is now controlled by a Shiite cleric with an automatic weapon, and it's not the only hospital seized by theocrat-wannabes. It's from an article titled "Iraqi Shiites, Jockeying for Power, Preach an Anti-American Sermon."

OK, maybe these guys aren't really in a position to get what they want -- let's hope so, at least. ("We will have an Islamic state here that mainly orders good and prevents evil," Mr. Zubaidi said. He added in the state he envisions, "Televisions are not allowed, dominoes are not allowed, women wearing makeup are not allowed, dubbed foreign films are not allowed.") And in the meantime:

Clerics loyal to Mr. Sadr have also formed militias to patrol Shiite neighborhoods, shooting with impunity those people they deem threats. In the highly charged, chaotic atmosphere of Al Sadr City, snap judgments have left many people dead.

Oh, great.