Ghost of a flea

Winston Review, No. 19

Nothing breeds that sort of freelance violence like the perception that the duly constituted authorities aren't willing to protect the citizenry. People in the United States didn't doubt that; people in the Netherlands have had reason to.
- Glenn Reynolds

Three-thousand people are butchered, incinerated or leap to their deaths on the morning television and the feared reprisals against the community the murderers claimed to represent was vanishingly small. An apocalyptic UFO cult pours countless millions into promoting hate and division and its sum effect in the United States are a tiny handful of ineffectual converts from the ranks of granola children. By contrast, one film-maker is butchered in the streets of Amsterdam and the country's mosques and churches are set alight. Something is not right in the state of Holland. Zacht Ei puts the case succinctly.

Quite right. There is no excuse for lawlessness and racism evident in this week's attacks on Dutch citizens scape-goated for no better reason than was in the heart of the assassin. There is no excuse for a society to have grown so complacent that it could have allowed the poison to fester not only in the hearts of the jihadists but in the hearts of a wider community whose opposition to racism appears to have been largely rhetorical. Many critics - many European critics - of the United States have mistaken representation for reality in their opposition to resolute action against the death-cult and for the oppressed peoples of Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere. In doing so they have failed to observe an astonishing domestic tranquility and quiet resolve that the American people have demonstrated as a whole in the defense of liberty. The Winston Review is a Flea-feature intended to offer spirited, uplifting alternatives to the defeatists and apologists of the mainstream media. This week's Review is a suggestion to the people of Europe. You have much to learn from the United States.*

*And Canada, btw.

This week in the Red Box:

Grief and anger over Theo's murder: Ayaan Hirsi Ali responds to the assassination of her friend (via Zacht Ei)

Random Synaptic Activity: Argghhh!!! notes a number of firsts at Fallujah.

Fallujah Update (and bumped): Being American in T.O. argues that, in Fallujah, "the Iraqi army is taking responsibility for the future stability of Iraq on behalf of and for the Iraqi people and, if you will, this is a major part of their entrance strategy as a sovereign nation" (via Babbling Brooks).

The Communism of the 21st Century: Belmont Club considers secularized democracy, emptied of value.

Where are we?: Harry's Place takes stock of "progressive" opinion.

Bush's Secularist Triumph: Christopher Hitchens stretches his legs.

"a reprieve from the agenda of paganism": INDC Journal offers some incisive after-thoughts.

Arafat the monster: Jeff Jacoby recalls "Ilana Turgeman. Rachel Aputa. Yocheved Mazoz. Sarah Ben-Shim'on. Yona Sabag. Yafa Cohen. Shoshana Cohen. Michal Sitrok. Malka Amrosy. Aviva Saada. Yocheved Diyi. Yaakov Levi. Yaakov Kabla. Rina Cohen. Ilana Ne'eman. Sarah Madar. Tamar Dahan. Sarah Soper. Lili Morad. David Madar. Yehudit Madar. The 21 dead children of Ma'alot -- 21 of the thousands of who died at Arafat's command."

Why I Hate Remembrance Day: My Left Wing Girlfriend is ashamed at the treatment of Canada's military.

A Coalition of Conviction: Kate O'Beirne sees "the makings of a successful majority party."

A long silence from the luvvies: Libertarian Samizdata is worth reading for the comment discussion.

Letter From Falluja: Nir Rosen writing for The New Yorker describes the jihadist rule coming to an end in Falluja. It turns out there is an Arabic word for the desecration that was carried out on the bodies of the Blackwater contractors and so many others: There is a term for this kind of thing. In Iraqi dialect, the Arabic word sahl, which literally means dragging a body down the street, has grown to mean any sort of public massacre. These are Michael Moore's "Minutemen".

I'm questioning their patriotism: Varifrank asks Democrats to take off their Star Trek uniforms (via The Transplanted Texan).

Silly comments by MP Femke Halsema: Zacht Ei reports the best moonbat quote of the week.

Your courage. Your cheerfulness. Your resolution.
Will bring us Victory.