The National Review’s Victor Davis Hanson assesses the EU — and in particular its preening Anti-Americanism — and he ain’t happy about it: Increasingly, Europe is no longer democratic in the American sense, but is ever so insidiously creating a sprawling regime of appointed, rather than truly elected, officials to override nationhood in order to create a utopian culture

More environmentally-friendly lunacy… The Los Angeles Times is reporting that the Berkeley City Council has banned log-burning fireplaces from new homes. Not content to stop the madness there, however, Jami Caseber, the “environmental activist” who led the drive to institute the ban, also wants to ban the use of existing fireplaces. The ban also applies to wood-burning cooking equipment, a condition of the legislation that has pissed off some Berkeleyites.

From Thomas Bray, writing in today’s WSJ Opinion Journal: [T]he EPA is always happy to put your money where its mouth is, even when there is no congressional mandate to do so. As economist Randal O’Toole of the Thoreau Institute has documented, the EPA has handed out about $9 million in recent years to private advocacy groups, such as Environmental Defense and the Gulf Coast Institute, to spread the antisprawl

From Thomas Bray, writing in today’s WSJ Opinion Journal: [T]he EPA is always happy to put your money where its mouth is, even when there is no congressional mandate to do so. As economist Randal O’Toole of the Thoreau Institute has documented, the EPA has handed out about $9 million in recent years to private advocacy groups, such as Environmental Defense and the Gulf Coast Institute, to spread the antisprawl

London-based Iranian journalist Amir Taheri, writing in the WSJ Opinion Journal assesses al Jazeerah TV: The secret of al Jazeera’s undoubted success […] lies not in its craven approach to Arab leaders, but elsewhere. It tells Arabs what they already think the mythical “Arab street” feels. It assumes that radical Islamism is on the rise in all Arab countries and that it’s secretly supported by the majority. This is why

London-based Iranian journalist Amir Taheri, writing in the WSJ Opinion Journal assesses al Jazeerah TV: The secret of al Jazeera’s undoubted success […] lies not in its craven approach to Arab leaders, but elsewhere. It tells Arabs what they already think the mythical “Arab street” feels. It assumes that radical Islamism is on the rise in all Arab countries and that it’s secretly supported by the majority. This is why

An interesting Christian Science Monitor piece on a Jordanian dinner theater comedy about UBL and co., and the aftermath of 9/11: In the new show ‘Bin Laden, Afghanistan, and More,’ Mr. bin Laden appears in one scene at the ‘Taliban Film Festival,’ a figment of the imagination of Hisham Yaness, one of Jordan’s foremost impersonators and comedians, who plays the fugitive. ‘I’m prepared to surrender to the White House if

An interesting Christian Science Monitor piece on a Jordanian dinner theater comedy about UBL and co., and the aftermath of 9/11: In the new show ‘Bin Laden, Afghanistan, and More,’ Mr. bin Laden appears in one scene at the ‘Taliban Film Festival,’ a figment of the imagination of Hisham Yaness, one of Jordan’s foremost impersonators and comedians, who plays the fugitive. ‘I’m prepared to surrender to the White House if

It’s quite an amusing read, is Robert Christgau’s piece in the Village Voice. In it, he fairly begs for the rise of a “protest movement” that would both validate his hawkishness regarding the war on terror and simultaneously protect his self image as a squishy champion of progressive politics (“progressivism” — sorry, Snoopy — means always having to say you’re sorry). This essay is the ultimate in self-serving twaddle, of

The Brits are selling off (and in some cases, pulping) library books in order to diversify their holdings, according to this Spectator piece by Julia Lewis. Madness? Certainly. Listen: David Blunkett has just called for immigrants to learn English and make an effort to integrate themselves into the life and customs of this country. If he wants them to get to know our culture and if he wants English to