The mayor of Paris was the target of a murder attempt over the weekend. His assailant was a disgruntled young man, who was also a Muslim who objected to homosexuality. After the assassination of Pim Fortuyn, it seems that Europe’s gay leaders are becoming highly vulnerable to public violence. Fortuyn, of course, was murdered by a far leftist; mayor Delanoe was targeted by an anti-gay Muslim. But I wonder if these events will in any way cause the gay rights movement in Europe and here to re-think its proximity to the left and to multi-culturalism. It’s still almost taboo for gay people to publicly criticize Islamic hostility to homosexuals; in fact, it’s far more common to hear critics of Islamism being decried as racists among gay activists than to hear Islamic bigots being criticized for homophobia. Perhaps that will now begin to change, as it should. Can you imagine the fuss if an evangelical or fundamentalist Christian had tried to kill an openly gay politician? So why the double standard for the other religious right – among Muslims?
2000 FOR EVER?: With a knife-edge election, appeals to the Supreme Court, and Al Gore in yet more costume changes, has the 2000 election ever really stopped? Here’s my take.
SONTAG AWARD NOMINEE: “Language is always a lie; above all, public language. McCarthy used a certain language to hunt communists. That which was used against Clinton is a bit more sophisticated. As for Bush, it’s ventriloquists who make him speak.” – Philip Roth, speaking to the Daily Telegraph.
USEFUL IDIOT WATCH: “I left the lunch impressed with Fidel. He seems to me like a kind man who is more amiable and friendly than most politicians.” Yep, this twelve year-old could one day grow up to be another Nick Kristof.
THE UNECONOMIC BLOGOSPHERE: This little piece struck me as extremely persuasive – in fact, so persuasive I wish I hadn’t read it. It’s about how the Internet, for all its joys, has yet to show how it can possibly make money:
This destruction of value is what makes weblogs so important. We want a world where global publishing is effortless. We want a world where you don’t have to ask for help or permission to write out loud. However, when we get that world we face the paradox of oxygen and gold. Oxygen is more vital to human life than gold, but because air is abundant, oxygen is free. Weblogs make writing as abundant as air, with the same effect on price. Prior to the web, people paid for most of the words they read. Now, for a large and growing number of us, most of the words we read cost us nothing.
Read the entire article – at no cost.
MRS DUISENBERG, CTD: The wife of the European Central Bank president, Wim Duisenberg, and a passionate defender of the Palestinians, made a “six million” joke on radio. I noted her explosion last week. She’s now being sued for it. More evidence of what is wrong with Europe: a society in which anti-Semitism is increasingly common and an illiberal polity that makes its expression illegal.
THE MULLAHS’ NIGHTMARE: A report from the other Iran:
Down in the basement, a man with an uncanny resemblance to the Sgt Pepper period John Lennon is recording a CD. With him, in the hot, stuffy studio, is a bassist dressed in black, a drummer and a 10-year-old Afghan boy playing small tambour drums. Behind the glass, a sound engineer is flicking switches and twiddling knobs. A girl in jeans, T-shirt and trainers is slouched on a sofa with a young man. Two other girls are watching the session. Not having visited the underground before, I am taken aback. The girls are not wearing the full, officially decreed women’s dress code. This includes covering one’s hair for fear of “stimulating” any man who might see it.
And how much sooner will this revolution happen if we remove Saddam’s tyranny first.
THE SHIFTING CONSENSUS: One reason, I think, that president Bush hasn’t been blamed as badly as he might for the faltering economy is that most people don’t think his administration caused the recession; and that few Democrats have really offered a major alternative to his current policy. That’s the catch with Paul Krugman’s constant complaint about the tax cut: wouldn’t revoking it hurt weakened demand even further? The Washington Post’s editorial on Al Gore’s latest piece of opportunism is a straw in the wind, I think. Here’s the key section:
But President Bush’s main economic policy — the large tax cut of last year — was not responsible for any of the current damage. Indeed, given the twin shocks of 9/11 and the post-Enron stock market decline, the short-term stimulus created by the tax cuts has turned out to be fortuitously well timed. To be sure, parts of the tax cut that have yet to be implemented, especially the repeal of the estate tax, are unaffordable and ought to be repealed. It’s also true that the administration’s response to Latin America’s financial woes has been confused. But to blame the weak American economy on Mr. Bush is nonsense.
Seems irrefutable to me. And I agree with the Post about the estate tax.
The Dish 