Spinning Iran, yet again: Iraq the Model catches CNN out good and proper.

Today I've been reading Ahmadinejad's letter to George Bush (via Hugh Hewitt) and it's fascinating stuff. I found this understanding of it very direct and helpful, too.

Revealed: Journalism is a very competitive business. To see who can get away with being laziest.

Wuzzadem has a classic 'journalists proved wrong seeking easy way out (again)' moment. You may not have heard of the latest bogus anti-war Iraq veteran, but the story is very instructive, though it will probably not come as a Shock.

Interesting article from Douglas Murray for the Social Affairs Unit on the departure of Hirsi Ali from Holland. Some interesting observations on the BBC's coverage of the situation, too.

The most worth a click blogger I know.

That would be Tim Blair, whose latest is an extended piece on a curious case of alleged plagiarism which really isn't. The alleged culprit is Mark Steyn, and what adds spice for me is that the article concerned was one of my favourite ones of recent times: Steyn's take-down of the Da Vinci Code. This book's popularity and its now-attendant film have been irritatingly sweeping back and forth across Europe in waves dashed only by a veritable Rorke's Drift of critics. Frankly who cares if the valiant defenders share weapons?

Ali on the telly: a number of good points made to Jon Snow. I guess it was conducted at an earlier stage but I think it illustrates that there has been an organised opposition to her- or at least that has been her awareness. I'm sure she's right about that.

Back to Hirsi Ali, and so on

Alison at Making Headlines has a very interesting post on the topic.

There are lots of things I could say about it. One though is that my scepticism about Europe's future is not a judgement on the moral values of the people: it's simply based on observations about political change, the liveliness of the expression of civilisational values in Europe, and demography. Ultimately there's a moral dimension, but that's not important when one is merely making observations.

That any citizen in Europe is forced into isolation and has to be guarded against minority fanatics is a scandal. Each death threat letter or threatening phone call is a crime. The criminals should be chased and harried and made example of. That's the only way law works; yet if we fail to impose the law the fanatics have an alternative for us, concerning which a recent Dutch Government report suggested the Dutch become less 'spastic': Sharia law.

Back to the Beeb soon.

Crash Course in Blogging Available for free...

Just read about Polly and her commenters (nb. Tim Worstall's contributions especially noteworthy)