Hysteria Watch

Is it just me, or has anyone else noticed a sort of "growing militancy" out there over the past few days and weeks? In particular, the use of the word "nuclear" in the MSM is way up recently. Just a few examples:

1. As noted here last week, Colorado Rep. Tom Tancredo proposes destroying Muslim holy sites including Mecca if terrorists use nuclear weapons against the U.S.

2. Ten days ago, we got this:

A senior Chinese general has warned that his country could destroy hundreds of American cities with nuclear weapons if the two nations clashed over Taiwan.

Major general Zhu Chenghu, a dean at the National Defence University, said he was expressing a private opinion, but his comments, the most inflammatory by a senior government official in 10 years, will fuel growing concerns in Washington about the rise of China. "War logic dictates that a weaker power needs to use maximum efforts to defeat a stronger rival," he was reported as saying by the New York Times. "If the Americans draw their missiles and position-guided ammunition on to the target zone on China's territory, I think we will have to respond with nuclear weapons."

3. This weekend we learned from this AP-Ipsos poll that six in ten Americans think World War III is likely.

4. This sketchy claim about possible terrorist plans involving nuclear weapons has been all over the internet for the past week.

To me all of this is troubling, because through repetition of language the unacceptable can become not only acceptable, but calmly expected.

What's going on here? Any thoughts?