The trouble with letting anti-Western fascists take root in your society is that the backlash that is delayed can be all the more powerful when unleashed. Even in Holland, the sentiment in favor of cracking down on Jihadist immigrants is getting close to irresistible. Money quote from a fascinating AP story:
“We are a Dutch democratic society. We have our own norms and values,” right-wing lawmaker Geert Wilders told The Associated Press in an interview. “If you chose radical Islam you can leave, and if you don’t leave voluntarily then we will send you away. This is the only message possible.”… Wilders said that without swift, bold action, Islamic fundamentalism will topple the country’s democratic system. “The Netherlands has been too tolerant to intolerant people for too long,” he said. “We should not import a retarded political Islamic society to our country. There is nothing to be ashamed of to say this. It’s not Islam. I speak out against the facts.”
Intolerance for the intolerant: the big liberal internal conflict begins. And we hear this after the U.S. storms a Jihadist mosque in Baghdad. Things are changing, aren’t they?
BACKLASH IN GOP-LAND: The Pod and Brooks. As Stephen Bainbridge points out, only the truly partisan right are defending DeLay now.
CAMBRIDGE POSTCARD: “My wife and I were in New York on 9/11. We had walked the city streets the afternoon after the destruction of the twin towers. Walking the streets of Cambridge the day after this election we found an eerily similar atmosphere. There were fewer people out than normally, and they were walking quietly, unsmilingly, looking shell-shocked, heads down, grim and preoccupied.” – Erik Tarloff, Prospect magazine. Apart from 3,000 deaths, it was roughly as bad, wasn’t it?
IN DEFENSE OF THE PILL: An emailer worries about the idea of “Catholic healthcare,” where doctors and pharmacists might abstain from prescribing birth control medication:
I have no intention of getting into an abortion debate or to discuss the value of contraception. I want simply to discuss the medical value of the pill outside of its contraceptive uses. I will not bore or disgust you with the details, but let’s say that since I was 17 I have had … female troubles which going on the pill tempered. When I was 24, after going off the pill for 2 years, I developed endometriosis. I have additional issues as well. Guess what makes my life free from monthly agony? Guess what will make it even possible for me to conceive in the future? That’s right, it is the monthly regulation of my hormones by the pill. There are millions of women with similar health problems not cured, but managed by taking the pill. This aspect of the contraception debate is never addressed in the public forum. How do we change that?
Well, this is a start.
A LIBERAL ON VAN GOGH: Here’s a liberal column on van Gogh from the Aspen Times. Not exactly national, but it’s strong.
The Dish 