David Frum's Blog, page 178

Boris Johnson: Deadliest When He's Nice

Mitt Romney got off lightly when Boris Johnson denounced him before a cheering crowd. Here's Johnson in a column in the Telegraph making use of another political foil, Nicholas Clegg - and far more brutally:

Nobody Cares About the Working Class

Or so John Sides contends in a blogpost at the political science website, The Monkey Cage:

Even the French Must Combat Illiberalism

Unsurprisingly disturbing news from France's far-right reactionary leader, Marine Le Pen.

China's Well-Greased Kangaroo Courts

The Financial Times's Jamil Anderlini describes today's sentencing of Wang Lijun, a former Chinese Communist party insider now immersed in a web of intrigue, as "a hasty process that had all the trappings of a show trial."

Persian Fire and Rubicon (Full)

Necessary Preface: After my Book Club entry on Tom Holland's most recent book, In the Shadow of the Sword, Tom and I struck up a Twitter correspondence. He read and said generous things about Patriots. Now I'm back writing about him. Are we log-rolling? I can only answer that if I had not sincerely enjoyed and learned from both Persian Fire and Rubicon, it would be very easy to preserve a tactful silence. But I did, very much so, and it seems unfair in the opposite direction to omit...

Malkin-Bots Ineptly Strike Back

The below hilarious exchange on the Amazon.com customer reviewer page lasted for less than an hour before reviewer Kevin P. Menard took it down. Good to know that Malkin-bots can be embarrassed!

Muslims to Obama: No We Won't

My National Post column reflects on President Obama's failure to deliver his promised new era of peace with the Islamic world.

Why the Rush to Label Islam and Liberalism Incompatible?

Hussein Ibish offers a powerful and pointed reply to those who'd condone attacks on free speech in the name of Islam, such as literary critic and New York Times contributor Stanley Fish:

Syria's Rebels Really Hate the Jews

Kapil Komireddi writes on a disturbing feature of Syria's revolution: a general absence of pluralism and respect for religious diversity. This illiberalism is a challenge for Christians and non Sunni Muslims, but is especially toxic for Jews.

Why Michelle Malkin Hates Half Her Country, ctd.

A friend in Texas offers an answer to my question about the source of the anger of the Michelle Malkins. Much wisdom here: