Which is our title for this morning's lineup of Love and Hate Relationship stories. The funny thing about love is that it tends to be personal. You love someone, they love you. You love your dog, your cat, and maybe a few of your relatives, too. It's a small-scale activity.

Hate, on the other hand, is a much broader emotional brush for painting the world in shades of red. You can hate a religion, a political party, a country, or even a gender—and spread your rage over any member who fits the bill. What makes life so fun is that they feel the same way about you. Let's start globally:

Down with Us

There's a lot of press this morning about the 38,000-person survey carried out by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press. This was one of those "How do you feel about Americans?" polls designed to gauge the general impression Senor Yankee is making around the world. The New York Times coverage is fairly neutral, yet concerned at recent trends.

While people in most non-Muslim countries continue to view the United States favorably, negative opinions have increased in most nations over the past two years, according to public opinion surveys in 44 countries.

What do we do? During an interview with Katie Couric this morning on Today, Bono Vox remarked that the aggressive provision of anti-AIDS drugs and retrovirals by U.S. firms (with government support) would go a long way toward showing that we care about people's lives outside our borders. The Pew study also looked at perceptions of anti-Western Muslim violence, and asked if "suicide bombing and other forms of violence against civilian targets are justified in order to defend Islam from its enemies."

Majorities said it was often or sometimes justified in Lebanon (73 percent) and Ivory Coast (56 percent)...But in many countries the question was not asked. Mr. Kohut said that in Egypt, for example, "A question about suicide bombing is not only impolitic, it could get you thrown in jail."

Global unhappiness with the United States may have gone up in recent years, but there is still a worldwide love affair with things American, a new survey found.

The global image of the United States has suffered a dramatic bruising in the past two years, most seriously in Muslim countries but also to a surprising extent among many traditional allies, a major new opinion survey has found.

There's a wonderful moment in Mark Hertsgaard's new book, The Eagle's Shadow: Why America Fascinates and Infuriates the World, when foreigners' complex feelings about the United States—why they hate us, why they love us and why it usually isn't either/or—come into startling focus.

Hate Crimes

Nobody likes to talk about these, I know, but the National Review has some thought-provoking remarks about the murder of Mary Stachowicz. If you're thinking to yourself, "Mary who?" then you've isolated the problem. The 51-year-old woman was killed by a coworker, Nicholas Gutierrez, a gay 19-year-old who snapped when she asked him, "Why do you [have sex with] boys instead of girls?" Impolite? Yes. A capital offense? Hardly.

"The defendant punched and kicked and stabbed the victim until he was tired. He then placed a plastic garbage bag over her head and strangled her."

The Sound and the Fury

Remember a few days ago when we mentioned that "Hammerfest" nazi concert planned for Daytona Beach? Looks like they got shut down. The promoter's only hope was to keep the intended venue owners in the dark about what kind of concert this was. Thanks to all the media coverage, word got out and so did the skinheads. They're heading over to Jacksonville now in an emergency relocation effort.

You may recall the "supersecret" plan they had to distribute directions to concertgoers. Well, the new plan is pretty much the same. You'll still have to go to a hotel parking lot and hang out for a few hours while they look you over.

Concert organizers said in an e-mail Wednesday that if they approve of a person's look, they will approach the person and give directions to the secret concert.

Puppy Love

By now you're sick of all these bad feelings so we'll move on to the "Love" side of the picture with this hard-hitting story by the Christian Science Monitor on a disturbing trend infecting the American heartland: Coed slumber parties.

But these days, late-night games of "truth or dare" have a new twist, and girls' pillow talk a deeper rumble: Coed sleepovers are on the rise, creating a whole new realm for rules—and rebellion.

You know, after reading all this, I think maybe John and Yoko had it right all along. It's a good day for a Love-In

11:24:58 AM