sisu

Leftist elites: Unwitting servants of a totalitarian impulse?

"The European Union is what Americans would call a shotgun marriage," former Soviet dissident Vladimir Bukovsky told Paul Belien of The Brussels Journal recently. Belien reports:

In a speech he delivered in Brussels last week Mr Bukovsky called the EU a “monster” that must be destroyed, the sooner the better, before it develops into a full-fledged totalitarian state.

Mr Bukovsky referred to confidential documents from secret Soviet files which he was allowed to read in 1992. These documents confirm the existence of a “conspiracy” to turn the European Union into a socialist organization . . .

The idea was very simple. It first came up in 1985-86, when the Italian Communists visited Gorbachev, followed by the German Social-Democrats. They all complained that the changes in the world, particularly after [British Prime Minister Margaret] Thatcher introduced privatisation and economic liberalisation, were threatening to wipe out the achievement (as they called it) of generations of Socialists and Social-Democrats -- threatening to reverse it completely. Therefore the only way to withstand this onslaught of wild capitalism (as they called it) was to try to introduce the same socialist goals in all countries at once.

Echoes of the Gramscian underpinnings of the Soviet Union's insidious infiltration of our own elite institutions last century -- blogged here, here and most recently here, where we cited Eric S. Raymond's checklist of the Soviet Union’s "memetic weapons" of propaganda internalized by our fellow Americans of the left. How would we feel were we to learn that our own political worldview -- in our case Darwinian libertarian -- was the result not of a lifetime of experience, reading, debate and analysis but, rather, the result of a bioterrorist-like attack on our thinking, where a virulent strain of counterintuitive, morally relativistic, international progressivist ideas had been released into the water supply of academic discourse and turned inquiring minds into unwitting servants of a totalitarian impulse?

Update:  Roger L. Simon's fisking of the dhimmitude of Newsweek exemplifies Raymond's "memetic weapon" of blaming the victim and forgiving the perpetrator of violence:

I don't know if there is a more fuddy-duddy publication than Newsweek (unless it's Time). Now they are tut-tutting those Europeans who have the temerity -- in the post-cartoon riot world -- to be concerned with protecting free speech and other Enlightenment values through new immigration standards that encourage assimilation. Not surprisingly the Newsweekies title their article The End of Tolerance, meaning Europe's, of course, not those Sharia-bound Muslims whose tolerance is legendary.

Update II:  Neo has an excellent post on "Conspiracy theories, Arab and otherwise," but as we said in her comments, "Just because I'm a conspiracy theorist doesn't mean there aren't evil-doers out there trying to take over the world."

Without a sense of honor, however defined, there is no incentive to behave

Baby Cakes kept Tuck on his toes yesterday during sewing lessons preparatory to making new curtains for the living room and seat covers for the dining-room chairs, the very definition of "shambles."

In the post-Fukuyama entrail reading of the "failure" of the nation's -- Bushitler's -- nuanced plan to prevail in the War on Terror, we were desperately seeking confirmation of our faith that GW has the nation on the "right track." William F. Buckley was no help at all, as Uncle Jimbo of Blackfive explained this morning:

I hesitated and actually quivered a bit as I contemplated writing this, but honesty means taking on your icons too. William F. Buckley Jr. is one of the most brilliant and entertaining thinkers in American history. When he recently wrote a column saying we need to admit defeat in Iraq, I was disheartened. He has opposed the endeavor from the start, but now he moves in a direction not reflective of the actual situation. I realize that I step way above my station to say that we should not take his view, but I don't rise to gainsay WFB. I rise to gainsay those who have held powerful views during their lives and fought the good fight, but counsel against action in their advancing years.

Back to that other doubting icon, the young and still wet-behind-the-ears Fukuyama of the much-blogged NYT article already behind a gated pay-to-play community. Too cluelessly self-defeating on the part of the NYT's powers that be, but you can still get a good chunk of his argument at History News Network:

The so-called Bush Doctrine that set the framework for the administration's first term is now in shambles. The doctrine (elaborated, among other places, in the 2002 National Security Strategy of the United States) argued that, in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks, America would have to launch periodic preventive wars to defend itself against rogue states and terrorists with weapons of mass destruction; that it would do this alone, if necessary; and that it would work to democratize the greater Middle East as a long-term solution to the terrorist problem.

We'd say it depends upon what your definition of "shambles" is, and Michael Barone puts Fukuyama's take in perspective:

[The National Security Strategy] was, as Yale historian John Lewis Gaddis has written, "the most fundamental reassessment of American grand strategy in over half a century," since Harry Truman set America on its course in the Cold War . . .

My prediction: Bush's successors, for all their criticisms (John McCain wants a larger military; Hillary Rodham Clinton says that she wouldn't have voted for military action in Iraq knowing what she knows now), will find it hard to move outside the framework of the National Security Strategy, as they take on Bush's burden of fighting what we're starting to call the Long War.

We were totally encouraged -- reinforced in our world view? -- by the words of Confederate Yankee:

The attack on the al-Askariya shrine was probably al Qaeda's last best hope of triggering a sectarian civil war in Iraq. Instead of ripping the nation apart however, it seems to have had the opposite effect, driving the leaders of Iraq's various ethnic groups closer together in a conflict against a common enemy.

Yes. That's what we WANTED to hear. Back to Fukuyama, he got the point without seeming to understand what he was saying:

If there was a single overarching theme to the domestic social policy critiques issued by those who wrote for the neoconservative journal The Public Interest, founded by Irving Kristol, Nathan Glazer and Daniel Bell in 1965, it was the limits of social engineering. Writers like Glazer, Moynihan and, later, Glenn Loury argued that ambitious efforts to seek social justice often left societies worse off than before because they either required massive state intervention that disrupted pre-existing social relations (for example, forced busing) or else produced unanticipated consequences (like an increase in single-parent families as a result of welfare).

That's where we've been since day one. Not sure about the neo-cons or even GW himself. Being a Darwinian, we have always gone with our understanding of nature and human nature. Welfare could never work as it denies the importance of being noticed within one's reproductive group. Without a sense of honor, however defined, there is no incentive to behave. But removing Saddam and leaving the slate relatively clean for self-interested Sunnis, Shiites, Kurds and other Iraqi citizens to battle it out with words instead of weapons seems like a pretty good idea.

Petting zoo

The Odee Boy loves to pet, and Tuck loves a fluffy boy to pet.

Neither Baby Cakes nor Tuck can ever get enough.

Update: Dozens more cats waiting to be petted in the 101st Carnival of the Cats, hosted by Tooty, the Singaporean calico proprietor of animal family.

"You used up all the glue on purpose!"

This 12" talking action figure of Darren McGavin as The Old Man with his prize Leg Lamp from "A Christmas Story" is ranked #29,856 in Amazon's Toys & Games section. The item is currently out of stock. Will McGavin's passing provide incentive for restocking?

"There has been a disturbance in the Force even more titanic than the recent expiration of Don Knotts," writes a bereft TigerHawk:

Darren McGavin, known to millions of us who "came of age" in the 1970s as "Kolchak the Night Stalker," has died at age 83 (scroll down for all kinds of pictures).

Damn, that makes me feel old.

Not you, old boot. The heart that loves is forever young. And not Darren McGavin, either. The beloved actor will live on for all generations as The Old Man -- Ralphie's bumbling, teddy-bear-gruff father -- in the timeless and eminently quotable "A Christmas Story." Trying to reconstitute the net-stockinged base of his shattered Leg Lamp, The Old Man spoke for all husbands who suspect their wives of nefarious motives:

You used up all the glue on purpose!

The Old Man is dead. Long live The Old Man!

Sisu = Sissypants?

Sissified descendents of our distaff ancestors in the old country -- the once fearless, albeit gloomy Finns of sisu fame -- have apparently thrown in the towel, submitting to YKW [PBUH].* Editorial heads rolled after publication of a cartoon drawn by Ville Ranta [detail above], "whose aim was to lampoon the Finnish president, prime minister and foreign minister for their cowardice during the cartoon crisis. The prophet was masked, because, as the cartoonist said, 'I do not wish to incriminate myself by drawing Mohammed’s face,'” reports The Brussels Journal.

"In Finland the editor of the cultural magazine Kaltio was fired yesterday after publishing a cartoon of a masked prophet Muhammad," reports The Brussels Journal:

Apparently the reason for sacking the editor, Mr Jussi Vilkuna, was that some of Finland’s large financial institutions withdrew their advertisements from Kaltio. Olavi Nieminen, the chief lawyer of Pohjola, a non-life insurance firm owned by OKO Bank, said the posting of the cartoon were irresponsible and a wrong way to defend free speech.

Finland has had a tradition of neutrality since the 1940s and apparently wishes to continue this tradition of “Finlandization.” The Finns’ neutrality was not voluntary, but was the consequence of the appeasement by a small country towards an aggressive, dangerous neighbour (the Soviet Union).

Our knowledge of Finnish history is sadly lacking, but we swell with pride over the reported valor in the name of freedom of the Bronson-Alcott-like pater familias of our own maternal grandmother, Grammy -- AKA JuJu -- as ferreted out by the family's official Genealogy Tsar, sister-in-law and mother of our nieces, Ellen. From the Fitchburg Daily Sentinel of December 13, 1912:

Few people of Fitchburg [MA] or the places in its vicinity, with the exception of those of his own race, are aware of the fact that there now resides in Lunenburg, within a short distance of the center of the town, a man who played a very prominent part in the general uprising in Finland, in 1905, which was known, throughout the world as the general strike, but which was in reality an uprising for the purpose of wresting from the Russian government what might be termed "home rule," and which was successful. As a result of his activity in that uprising, this man, who was for some years a resident of Fitchburg, had a heavy price placed upon his head by the Russian government, but after victory had been won, he escaped through other European countries and eventually found his way to the United States, in which he has traveled extensively and done much to arouse among his countrymen and interest in Finnish affairs.

That was our great grandfather. We never heard much about his political exploits from his daughter -- our grandmother -- Julia, who preferred to reveal the less heroic side of his nature as husband and father. All that is history now. Be that as it may, we are wicked ashamed of Finnish leaders' response to the Cartoon Wars.

Meanwhile, we are more than elated at the Vatican's "practice what you preach" announcement this week:

After backing calls by Muslims for respect for their religion in the Mohammad cartoons row, the Vatican is now urging Islamic countries to reciprocate by showing more tolerance towards their Christian minorities . . .

After criticising both the cartoons and the violent protests in Muslim countries that followed, the Vatican this week linked the issue to its long-standing concern that the rights of other faiths are limited, sometimes severely, in Muslim countries.

We've loved Benedetto with all our heart and soul from day one when we learned of his passion for Mozart and cats. He inhabits an intellectually rigorous and emotionally rich world of faith and ritual we will never know. Even so, as we wrote here recently:

We agree with Oriana Fallaci -- the renowned Italian Journalist indicted last year in her native country for vilifying, as the law says, a "religion admitted by the state," in this case Islam -- that "You cannot survive if you do not know the past." In an Opinion Journal interview with Tunku Varadarajan last June -- blogged here -- she said "I am an atheist, and if an atheist and a pope think the same things, there must be something true. It's that simple! There must be some human truth here that is beyond religion."

Our doting, contrarian Finnish grandmother, Grammy/JuJu used to call us Sissypants. It was a term of endearment then, but now that sisu has been sissified in dhimmitudinous submission to Islamicism, it speaks only of contempt.

*YKW [PBUH] = You Know Who [Peace Be Unto Him] = the Muslim prophet Mohammed [formerly known as Mohammed]

The taste of freedom

Even as he gives a pass to our Blueberry Light 'n Fit Dannon yogurt. Baby shows sammenhold -- the Danish word for solidarity, reports Michelle Malkin -- by going for the jugular of our grilled Havarti and Majestic Danish ham sandwich. Mmmmm. What a delicious way to show support for our freedom-loving Scandinavian friends.

Freedom's Zone [via Michelle Malkin] is encouraging bloggers to help Stand up for Denmark by writing a post on Christopher Hitchens's call for a demonstration at the Embassy of Denmark between noon and 1 p.m. today, February 24. Besides eating for freedom (above), you may want to call and/or email the Danish embassy early and often. Here's the info:

Embassy of Denmark
3200 Whitehaven St., N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20008
Tel: +1 (202) 234-4300
Fax: +1 (202) 328-1470

Email: [email protected]

Fear may be cowing the media, but like Brit Hume of Fox News, the gentleladies and gentlemen of the blogosphere aim to be fair, balanced and unafraid. This happens to be our 25th Buy-Danish! Cartoon Wars post, and it won't be our last till the Danish cows come home. We love cream and ice cream, and according to the Mackie's of Scotland ice cream folks, "Danish Jerseys produce the creamiest milk in the world!" Baby and Tiny stand in sammenhold on this one, big time.

Update:  Stephen Green has pictures -- Hitch, Sully, Gertrude Himmelfarb's boy Bill, Clifford May with crossed-flags lapel pin [gotta get one of those] and assorted Danish at the rally in front of the Embassy this afternoon. Be sure to catch the signs. Our fave:  "Submit to Havarti."

Update II: Blogfriend Martin Lindeskog of EGO is hosting the Carnival of the Recipes with a Danish theme a week from today. That's March 4, Feast day of St. Casimir, Prince of Poland (b. 1458), according to Answers:

When Casimir was thirteen he was offered the throne of Hungary by factions discontented with king Mattias Corvinus. Casimir, who was eager to defend the Cross against the Turks, accepted the call and went to Hungary to receive the crown.

It is an ancient wound. But meanwhile -- like music -- food is the language we all understand, so we invite you to put on your chef's hat and send in your Danish-themed recipes to Martin ASAP.

"Presumably they are in the port-management business for the money"

"The Burj [Al Arab] resembles a billowing mainsail pulling Dubai’s Jumeirah Beach into the sea," writes AutoWeek's Natalie Neff. "The proprietors of the hotel like to call it the world’s only seven-star hotel, though I never learned exactly what comes with all those extra stars. Besides security, that is." We checked the rates and found a "Deluxe King One Bedroom" suite goes for just over $1400 per night. (Deluxe Suite Bathroom still, above, from "Take a Virtual Tour of the Burj Al Arab") The Jumeirah Essex House - New York on Central Park South is the latest addition to Jumeirah's portfolio. The CEO, Gerald Lawless, an Irishman by birth, "has spent sixteen years in the Gulf, having worked in Dubai originally from 1978 to 1982 and later in Bahrain."

"Wacky architecture aside, typical Dubaians seem to behave as would any folk who suddenly came into gobs and gobs of dough: They buy cars. Very. Expensive. Cars," writes Natalie Neff of AutoWeek's Awblogs -- who knew? --re the "terrorist haven" demagogues have spun from whole cloth this week in the matter of the Dubai ports-management decision:

Of course, the reason I went to Dubai in the first place was to test-drive Porsche’s new Cayenne Turbo S, but as we rolled through the city in our deep-green SUV, few heads turned our way. Despite our barely-ready-for-public-consumption wheels, we hardly stood out in the crowd of bazillion-dollar cars in which we found ourselves . . .

I tried to convey to mom how magical and wonderful a place I found Dubai, to quell her misgivings as to its proximity to the war. As we ate our birthday dinner, I gave her all the presents I brought back: fresh dried dates stuffed with pistachios; gourmet chocolates wrapped in extravagant boxes and hand-carved nesting dolls painted like beautiful veiled women. Then I told her about the belly dancers, the palatial estates, the beaches where bikinis mingled with birkhas and eating under tents in the desert like the Bedouins of old. I think she finally got it.

Now if only what Tony Snow calls "the fulminating honorables" would finally get it. They might have, notes Tony "if even one of them had bothered to contact a single person working at or running a port":

The good news is that politicians appreciate the absurdity of the position. On Thursday, Karl Rove extended an olive branch, noting that the administration is willing to let Congress study the matter for 45 days, if necessary.

Sen. Chuck Schumer, who got this riot started, quickly declared that he would like that. The White House knows that, in time, facts will annihilate the Know-Nothings, who have swilled a cocktail of ignorance and knee-knocking fear of Muslim Arabs.

"An alternative way of looking at the Dubai Ports World decision is that it finally binds an Arab nation to our side in the war on terror and that it represents a recognition by some Arab elites that their self-interest coincides with ours," adds the WSJ's Daniel Henninger:

Dubai was already cooperating in tracing and identifying al Qaeda's financial flows. Presumably they are in the port-management business for the money. Now you may disagree with this, but there is at least an upside and downside here worth weighing. No chance of that now. The press yesterday clearly set the chalk lines for public discussion on the ports: The only issue now is whether the White House caves to "bipartisan pressure."

We were encouraged with the serious tenor of Sen. John Warner's Armed Services Committee briefing of Bush administration officials yesterday. Members of the press were allowed to sit in the briefing room and ask questions following the lawmakers' question period. Hillary's bullying tone is never easy on the ears -- or the nerves -- but Senator Warner was always reassuringly in control.

"No one wanted to show the truth"

Babe agrees with Ronald Reagan that "There is no limit to what you can accomplish if you don't care who gets the credit." Whether it's his relentless campaigning, his sister's or some unknown magical force that moves Grandma to head for the kitchen, what counts is who gets the puddie treats.

"But why when anything good happens, they show the bad side of it too in their stories, but when any bad thing to happen, they only write about it and not the good sides around it?" asks Iraqi journalist/blogger 24 Steps to Liberty [via the glittering eye via neo]:

I was amazed how only the provocative and civil-war-style quotes were published today in the newspapers. Almost no newspaper showed how great, it appeared to us, the solidarity among Iraqis was yesterday. It is true that Sunni mosques were attacked by unknown men yesterday, and some Sunnis were killed. But that wasn’t the only thing happened as a reaction. Newspapers should have been neutral, as we were taught, and show both sides. Sunnis, Shiites, Kurds, Arabs, Christians, Sabians, Turkumans, and others publicly condemned the attack, but no one wanted to show the truth. I am not saying there will be no riots in Iraq to react to the shrine attack. I am not saying there weren’t mosques that were attacked yesterday and burned down. I am not saying that Shiites and Sunnis kissed and hugged after the attack yesterday. All what I am saying is that the news made Iraqis look like if they were fighting each other widely in the streets, which is not true. The news only made Iraqis sound like barbarians killing each other. There are barbarian Iraqis, like other people in the world, I am not saying all Iraqis are perfect and compete with angels in their manners.

Welcome to the Wild, Wild West, Steps to Liberty. If the local Iraqi papers are as sensationalistic, agenda-driven, reflexively Bush-bashing and truth free as ours here stateside -- which your post suggests -- maybe there really is hope, after all. What it took us decades to accomplish, Iraq has achieved in only a handful of years. If you keep up the pace, we will happily look to you to lead us out of this desert of suicidal pap.

On this side of the pond, it has taken an unholy alliance of rightie Bill Bennett and left-of-center Alan Dershowitz -- Bill was "the first student I ever had in my class, this was 42 years ago," Alan tells Hugh Hewitt -- to perhaps open the eyes of them that sleep. Neo's take on Portgate resonates with the cluelessness of media types -- yes, you, David Gregory -- who fuss over their coiffure even as they are being swept into the dustbin of history:

And so the inexperienced pundits pronounce, predict, and pontificate -- while the caravan moves on.

Bennett and Dershowitz? We loved Lucianne's take: "Here's an Oscar and Felix act for you with some telling insights." Whatever it takes. As Ronnie said, "There is no limit to what you can accomplish if you don't care who gets the credit."

Update:  Speaking of Felix, head on over to the Friday Ark at Modulator for some telling insights.

"His fatal flaws were honesty and a desire to do the right thing"

Tiny stares out the back door (offscreen to the right) -- at things we don't see -- this morning from behind a mock prison, the laundry rack atop the washing machine, where she likes to swish and purr and self-pet while weighing opposing arguments before deciding the exact moment when it's safe to go outside.

"His fatal flaws were honesty and a desire to do the right thing. That has ruined more than one academic career," writes Thomas Sowell, noting "the resignation of Lawrence Summers as president of Harvard University tells us a lot about what is wrong with academia today":

Even if every conclusion with which students are indoctrinated were true, unless those students develop their own ability to weigh opposing arguments, these conclusions will become obsolete as new issues arise in the years ahead. These "educated" people will have developed no ability to analyze opposing sides of issues.

Students are getting half an education at inflated prices and learning only how to label, dismiss and demonize ideas that differ from what they have been led to believe. Their "educated" ignorance is a danger to the future of this country.

But all may not be lost. Like the Danish imams who fanned the fires of "Arab-street" cartoon hysteria only to have their attempts to repress freedom of speech in the West blow up in their faces [Buy Danish!], Harvard's radical FAS malcontents may have unwittingly sown the seeds of their own destruction by revealing the raw power grab behind their heavy-handed attempts to repress freedom of speech on campus.

Honesty and a desire to do the right thing, a fatal flaw in today's university president, are the hallmarks of success among leading members of the feline community.

According to Harvard Prof. Ruth R. Wisse in Opinion Journal:

Student response to the ouster suggests another long-term outcome. Although the activists of yesteryear may have found a temporary stronghold in the universities, a new generation of students has had its fill of radicalism.

"My sources report that Summers did himself no good with the faculty by becoming a hero to the student body," quips Emmett Tyrrell, popping the spoilers' hot-air balloon with humor:

The weekend before his resignation the student newspaper, The Crimson, published a poll showing that some 70 percent of the university's undergraduates wanted him to stay. Knowledgeable observers around the Harvard Yard recognize that many faculty members are very jealous of the undergraduates, viewing them as handsomer, prettier and in some cases much better skateboarders. Also the undergraduates are seen as a threat to the professoriate's self-esteem, as many do not watch much television or play video games. They agree with Summers that Harvard State University should be a citadel of learning, even if that means reading books rather than conducting witch hunts.

We hope the smug thugs of the FAS get to read that. Maybe we'll google their email addresses and forward it. There's nothing a tyrant can tolerate less than being made fun of.

It is human nature that they hate and fear

"I anticipate that the views of the Commander-in-Chief will prevail . . . That it's in our interest to pursue this action," Sen. Armed Services Committee Chair John Warner is telling John Gibson of Fox News this evening re the Administration's support of the sale of shipping operations at six major U.S. seaports to a state-owned business in the United Arab Emirates. Some of our best friends in the blogosphere went off the deep end, presumably going with their gut before learning the facts. We hope C-Span -- if not the cables, which will no doubt be consumed by the missing/murdered pregnant-mom story of the moment -- will carry Warner's briefing tomorrow.

"A lot of complicated processes occur without our being aware of it," says Daniel Kahneman, an "authority on decision making" at Princeton University cited in a news@nature item [was available free, but now they've thrown up a subscription barrier] about a Norwegian study that concludes "unconscious consideration yields most satisfying decisions." Update: Boston Globe link here. There are a gazillion things we could say pro and con their conclusion, but of most interest at the moment are our own recent initial gut reactions to two causettes célèbres -- Birdshotgate and United-Arab-Emiratesgate -- both of which made us gasp at first blush that all was lost but upon reflection and research in the blogosphere and on cable TV have yielded a mellowed-out response. We're buying Dr. Sanity's take until further notice:

I'm not sure what is really going on here, but I am sure that something important is behind the apparent intransigience of the President on this issue.

He could have done the easy thing and said that there would be a delay until everyone was satisfied that it was the correct decision. He could have rejected the decision entirely. From a political standpoint either one would have worked for him. So, I must conclude that we do not have all the facts about what this is really about.

We naturally adored the New York Sun's take on Hillary & Company's shock, shock that there might be terrorists gambling in the back room at Rick's:

One has to wonder, what makes this group, not particularly known for its hawkishness -- in some cases known for abject dovishness -- suddenly more hawkish than President Bush? It turns out their objections look to be less and less about American national security and more about plain old politics and political money and a labor union notorious for its ties to organized crime on the waterfront.

Even so, "The truth is, Brit, nobody saw it coming," reports Fox News WH reporter Carl Cameron." Same old, same old? No doubt our fellow Americans are far more worried about national security than the security of the Vice President's shooting companion, and demagogues will play UAEgate to the hilt. Still, we're with chuck of YARGB, who notes the so-called MSM is -- as ever -- asleep at the switch:

The big story today is the attack on the al-Askari shrine in Samarra. The situation is ripe with danger and possibility and, like the wedding bomb in Jordan, I think it may have repercussions in the Islamic world at large. Iraq the Model and The BBC have more. IMHO, this is the major news event. As I understand it, it is like al Qaeda's flying an airplane into the Sistine Chapel. Perhaps it is even more inflammatory, given the current religious tensions and unsettled government in Iraq. Let's not get distracted by the P&O purchase and the perfidy of academics.

"As I understand it, it is like al Queda's flying an airplane into the Sistine Chapel," writes chuck of YARB re the latest egregiousness perpetrated by those who would behead us for publishing cartoons of YKW (PBUH). In the way of festering ancient tribal wounds, the dawn bomb attack that devastated the dome of one of the world's holiest Shiite shrines, sparked "reprisal attacks against 90 Sunni mosques that left at least eight dead" and sent "thousands of Shiites to the streets in protests." Don't you love it when attacks leave people dead. Not murderers, but attacks "leave" people dead.

The obscene destruction of the Askariya shrine in Samarra reminded us of the Taliban's mind-dead splodey-doping of the giant Buddha statues just before 9/11 and made us wonder whether we were witnessing a signal between al Queda types of worse things to come on our own shores. Fear societies are always the same. As we wrote a couple of years back about our gut feelings just before 9/11:

We remember the visceral feeling of repulsion at the images of the Buddha statues being blown up. Okay. We think we have some clue as to why these insecure men hate and fear and then project their hatred and fear onto women. But hatred and fear of buildings? Dennis Prager's comment re erasing the past is the answer, of course. That is how the totalitarian mind works. It is human nature -- and its cultural products celebrating human nature -- that they hate and fear.

The same goes for the Harvard Harpies who hounded Lawrence Summers out of office.