The other day I was looking through my e-mail account and came across something from the Ad Astra Institute of Kansas. They are holding a panel discussion Nov. 8 in Lawrence's Eldridge Hotel entitled, "Political Violence in Kansas: More Effective for the Right than the Left?"

That's right, our neighbors down the river are engaging in a panel discussion on political violence. According to its Web site, Ad Astra is a "progressive think tank in a conservative state." Just how radical of an organization is it, though? Is it supporting political violence or accusing conservatives of engaging in it?

A look at the panel members fails to answer that question. First is Mark Rudd, a leader of the Students for a Democratic Society and a founding member of the Weather Underground.

If the Weather Underground sounds familiar, that's because it was an issue during the 2008 elections, when it was revealed that then-candidate Barack Obama was close friends with Bill Ayers, a prominent Weatherman and domestic terrorist.

Rudd would be an expert in domestic terrorism, I suppose. He participated in the "Days of Rage" in 1969, which left 28 riot control police officers injured, one citizen hurt and six Weathermen shot. In March 1970, Rudd went underground after three Weathermen were killed by the premature explosion of a bomb meant for a servicemen's ball.

He eventually turned himself in and "now says he was terribly wrong," said David Burress, the president of Ad Astra.

The next panel member is Jonathan Earle, University of Kansas professor of history and expert on John Brown and pre-Civil War politics. Oh yes, John Brown. The man's solution to the slavery debate was to murder five pro-slavery southerners in Pottawatomie, Kan., while they slept. They claimed it was fair game because of the 1856 sacking of Lawrence. That sacking had resulted in no deaths for the free-staters (one pro-slavery raider was killed by falling masonry). Five murders for none sounded like a fair trade to Brown, I guess.

And honestly, who hasn't wanted to burn down Lawrence after a bad day or a football game?

We all remember from history class that John Brown's end came when he decided to take over an armory to try and start a slave revolt. As President Lincoln put it, he was a "misguided fanatic."

At this point, we have a domestic terrorist and a scholar on the foremost domestic terrorist in American history. To round off the group, we have Ad Astra's president himself, Burress.

Burress told me he is working on a paper about violence by anti-abortion activists, especially "in light of the murder of Dr. George Tiller."

Now, considering this cast and the topic, let me take a guess how the discussion will go.

The terrorist will say, "The left has never been able to achieve anything with violence. The State kept us down." The historian will say, "John Brown and those Republicans used violence to keep slavery out of Kansas." The progressive will say, "Crazy right-wingers are out there right now killing poor, innocent abortion doctors!"

They might prove me wrong. It might be a very informed discourse on the troubles of 19th and 20th century domestic terrorism and how we'll be better in the future. I don't see it, though.

Here's how I see it: Left-wing terrorists have been out there, but now they advise presidents. Right-wing terrorists have been out there, but they are in prison, or in John Brown's case, executed and buried.

Either way, political violence is something we should all agree on, regardless of political leanings. There is no justification in our democracy for political violence. Lawrence liberals seem to think it is ok to use it, to break the law and to obstruct justice if it is for a greater cause, but only a liberal cause.

Conspiring to kill servicemen will get you invited to speak, killing Tiller will get you sent to prison and taking over an armory will send you to the gallows.

What happened to that darling liberal belief in equality of outcome?