As I mentioned in yesterday's 9/11 column (sharply titled by my excellent syndicate editor "A Day That Will Live in ... Islamic Accomodation"), the demonstration in downtown Brussels held by the Flemish separatist party Vlaams Belang both to mark 9/11/08 and to protest the Islamization of Europe was broken up by Belgian police--and, according to one participant who emailed me yesterday, it was broken up before the group could finish laying flowers at the base of the World Trade Center there.

How's that for efficient police work?

The mayor of Brussels, Freddy Thielemans, had denied Vlaams Belang a permit for the demonstration for several reasons as reported in the Belgian press: the event would be too "sensitive"; the event would be taking place too close to "sensitive" neighborhoods; and it would be taking place during the presumably sensitive span of Ramadan. 

"Sensitive"? Let's snip away the euphemistic  grape leaf. The mayor was referring to a potential Muslim reaction in Brussels,...

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    I  haven't been posting over the last several days as I await the transfer of this blogsite to a new and improved server. Should happen any day now.      Meanwhile, I just wanted to alert readers to my upcoming appearance as guest-host of "Book Notes" on C-SPAN this weekend. I will be interviewing Pat Buchanan about his newbook "Day of Reckoning: How Hubris, Ideology and Greed Are Tearing America Apart."     The book is a Buchanan-esque (un-sugarcoated) overview of the weaknesses PB sees afflicting the Union, both domestically, and in regard to a foreign policy I would agree is over-reaching in its stated goal, as President Bush put it in his Second Inaugural Address, of "ending tyranny in our world." The book is, of course, bracing in its assessments. It also taught me a few things. For example, PB reviews a symposium he participated in back in 1989 sponsored by The National Interest in which a selection of writers (including Chas. Krauthammer, Ben Wattenberg, Jeane Kirkpatrick) were asked to  discuss what US foreign policy should look like after the eventual dissolution of the Soviet Union. This was before the Berlin Wall actually came down....

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The Jerusalem Post's Carolyn Glick sums up the fallout from the NIE, which this week, of course, declared that Iran had decided eschew nuclear weapons-making for underwater basket-weaving. This pronouncement--which is not even supported by the body of the report--has set off a clamor for engagement with the Iranian mullah-ocracy, and against any policies that might be construed as strong or effective, from military strikes (natch) to even sanctions. Glick's analysis is especially trenchant, and bitterly so, when she speculates about the tie-in to last week's Annapolis Conference:     Many commentators applauded the Annapolis conference, claiming that its real aim was to cement a US-led coalition including Israel and the Arabs against Iran. These voices argued that it made sense for Israel to agree to negotiate on bad terms in exchange for such a coalition. But the NIE shows that the US double-crossed Israel. By placing the bait of a hypothetical coalition against Iran, the US extracted massive Israeli concessions...

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Dr. Al-Zhivago, call your office: Moscow (AsiaNews) -- Moscow’s first private clinic based on Sharia law opened its doors yesterday. “The policlinic will strictly abide by Sharia law by observing, above all, gender differences in its services,” said Anna Kisko, a spokesperson for the health network responsible for the facility. In the new centre women will be served by female specialists; men by male specialists, she told the Interfax Religion agency. The administrative personnel will also be dressed accordingly to Sharia law, i.e. the doctors will only have their hands open and female doctors will have to wear headscarves or possibly hijabs. The opening of a Halal cafeteria and a prayer room with a screen separating men from women should also be available at the policlinic. In addition, all medicines used at the policlinic will have to conform to Halal principles and not contain any alcohol. (Via Brussels Journal.)

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As I wend my way through my veritable library of Clinton Scandals Past (column to follow), I have happened across two good reasons to say Good Riddance to longtime Republican Senator from Mississippi Trent Lott, who announced his retirement from the Senate at the end of November. Good Riddance #1 comes from Sell-Out: The Inside Story of President Clinton's Impeachment by David Schippers, the chief cousel to the 13 House Managers, led by the late Henry Hyde. After the historic vote in the House of Representatives to impeach President Clinton in December of 1998, Mr. Schippers writes of a meeting he attended with the House Managers, a few others, and then-Senate Majority Leader Lott and then-Senator Rick Santorum (Pennsylvania Republican) to discuss the Senate trial to come.

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