A READER SENDS this item from Stratfor on Saudi military goings-on. It suggests, as I suggested below, that the Saudi regime is much less stable than is generally realized.

A PRETTY GOOD SURVEY ARTICLE on technology and transhumanism in the Washington Post.

CHRIS SUELLENTROP HAS IT RIGHT:

After Sept. 11, many observers predicted that the ugly side of the American character would soon reveal itself. Xenophobia and nativism would flourish. Ominous reports of widespread violence against Arab-Americans would surface. A few hysterical doomsayers worried that it was only a matter of time before Muslims would be placed in internment camps. Despite those fears, none of the Ugly American predictions came to pass. Instead, 9/11 cemented an altogether different phenomenon: Ugly Europeanism.

Fascism, as the old saying has it, is always descending on the United States, but somehow always lands in Europe.

THE NEW YORK SUN is reporting that Columbia University is coming under increasing pressure to reinstate its ROTC program. The Sun, unfortunately, isn’t available online yet — but the story is blogged at Ribstone Pippin.

READER ALLEN S. THORPE CALLS FOR REPARATIONS NOW:

As I understand it, when most Jews in Europe either fled or were gassed, their lands and property fell into the hands of Europeans. I wondered why the Jews haven’t pressed this issue except by private lawsuits. Perhaps Israel should demand that these properties, particularly land, be turned over to the Palestinians in exchange for peace in the Middle East.

Maybe this is what’s really behind the European Anti-semitism.

Where’s Jesse Jackson when you need him?

THE SAUDI PR OFFENSIVE isn’t working very well. Craig Schamp isn’t impressed, and an MSNBC story by Andrea Mitchell on the PR campaign stressed that 15 of the 19 9/11 hijackers were Saudis, that the Saudis were still funding terror, and that the Saudi government was involved. The included denials by Prince Faisal al-Saud were particularly oily and unpersuasive, even for the unimpressive Saudi diplomatic corps.

Perhaps the “rope-a-dope” strategy is really aimed at building U.S. support for an invasion of Saudi-controlled Arabia — and at demonstrating to the world that Bush was serious about being for us or against us, by giving the Saudis enough rope to publicly hang themselves (metaphorically) before the United States does so literally.

SAUDI calls on Arabs to enslave Jewish women. Ha! In your dreams, guys.

UPDATE: Letter from Gotham has the Sheikh’s mobile phone number, in case any Jewish women — or others — want to give him a piece of their mind.

CHARLES OLIVER rips anti-American libertarians.

THE GERMAN SCHOOL SHOOTING is shocking some people — don’t they have gun control over there? — but in fact such massacres happen all over the world. And in fact, they seem to be on the upswing abroad more than in the United States.

UPDATE: The death toll in the German shooting appears to be the largest in any school shooting so far. Columbine was “only” 13 (CNN just said 12, but I think they’re forgetting the teacher).

KRAUTHAMMER RESPONSE — Reader Hamish Campbell writes:

That CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER is really overblown. The problem with the idiots over in Europe is they have swallowed the Palestinian propaganda, not some blather about ‘the armed Jew’. Here in Britain, rather than Europe, tales of anti-Semitism are ridiculous. In order to be anti-Semitic, people in Britain would have to actually give a damn about the Jews. We don’t. Most people feel Israel is just another screwed up place ‘over there’.

If anything, the few people who do think about Israel that I know probably agree with that cartoon on Samizdata that at least the Israelis are not hiding in ambulances and behind their children like the Palestinians are. But really, I suspect most people in Scotland at least care as much about Israel as Israelis care about Northern Ireland.

Well, I haven’t noticed Israeli politicians weighing in on the Northern Ireland situation, or threatening boycotts, or sending money to fund IRA “infrastructure.” Though the real problem, of course, is not so much the British as the French and the Norwegians.

If the Euros pick on Israel enough, of course, Israel might start returning the favor by funding and supporting various separatist groups in Europe. And if they do, I think the Europeans will be very unhappy with the results.

UPDATE: Reader John Kluge sends this response to Hamish Campbell:

Hamish Campbell writes “In order to be anti-Semitic, people in Britain would have to actually give a damn about the Jews. We don’t. Most people feel Israel is just another screwed up place ‘over there’.” Yeah that pretty much sums up the attitude of Britain when they were closing their borders and shutting off Palestine to Jewish refugees to placate the Arabs while Hitler was building Auschwitz. Now that the Arabs are busing trying to build nuclear weapons to finish the job Hitler started, once again “Britain would have to actually give a damn about the Jews” to do anything. Well Mr. Campbell, just like Chamberlain found out in 1939, its not so easy to send the Jews to their deaths to placate homicidal lunatics. Those lunatics have a bad habit of turning on the rest of the world. Inadvertently, Mr. Campbell sums up why Europe has ceased to be a credible moral force in the world.

DAVID BROCK EXPOSED: ANDREW SULLIVAN HAS PICTURES!

UPDATE: Some readers say that this was a flaw in the transcript, and that Brock didn’t actually say he was never on Fox.

WOBBLY WATCH: BERNARD LEWIS says that our kowtowing to “moderate” Arabs will embolden terrorists.

INTERESTING STUFF going on in the Sudan.

CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER takes on European anti-semitism:

What so offends Europeans is the armed Jew, the Jew who refuses to sustain seven suicide bombings in the seven days of Passover and strikes back. That Jew has been demonized in the European press as never before since, well . . . since the ’30s. The liberal Italian daily La Stampa ran a cartoon of the baby Jesus, besieged by Israeli tanks, saying, “Don’t tell me they want to kill me again.” . . .

Three people have been chosen by the United Nations to judge Israel’s actions in Jenin. Two are sons of Europe, and one of those is Cornelio Sommaruga. As former head of the International Committee of the Red Cross, Sommaruga spent 12 years ensuring that the only nation on earth to be refused admission to the International Red Cross is Israel. The problem, he said, was its symbol: “If we’re going to have the Shield of David, why would we not have to accept the swastika?”

This man will sit in judgment of the Jews. Marx was wrong when he said that history repeats itself, the first time as tragedy, the second as farce. The second time is tragedy too.

Europe, except maybe Germany to some degree, is in the hands of a political class that is morally leprous, intellectually bankrupt, and financially corrupt. Antisemitism seems to come naturally to such people.

BAD NEWS for James Lileks. And sometimes me.

READER HEATHER MCFARLANE WRITES:

As a Canadian, I am not surprised that this young man should be punished for being a successful soldier.

Throughout Canada (except Quebec), a central feature of every city and town is a memorial listing names of locals who died in the Great Wars and Korea. At the end of WWII, Canada had the 2d largest navy in the world.

However, Canada almost broke up during each of the World Wars, because Quebec did not want to be a part of these wars (they were not Quebec’s “business”)

So, for the past generation, official Canada has ignored this martial past, and the the process twisted parts of our history, and lost other parts, in an attempt to “unite” our country and defeat Quebec “separatism.”

Those troublesome French. Even when they’re not French anymore.

MASSACRE IN ALGERIA — probably by the Armed Islamic Group. How about a nice peaceful sit-in by the “Unarmed Islamic Group?” Well?

A REASON TO READ SALON: Heather Havrilesky dissects the wedding-movie genre. Sample passage: “In the language of wedding porn, there’s an unspoken expectation that a man will squeeze comfortably into a preset role: handsome, sweet, neutered wage earner. He works hard so you don’t have to.”

CANADIAN HERO FACES COURT MARTIAL — “Culture of disdain” for armed forces blamed:

Cpl Perry has been sent back to Canada to face, instead of a hero’s welcome, a court martial on discipline charges, reported to be in connection with threatening remarks he is alleged to have made to the Canadian chaplain during a “stress debriefing”.

“Look at what they did to me,” he said. “This is how they show their appreciation to me, by sending me back to Canada.”

Military experts yesterday denounced what they called Canada’s culture of disdain for its armed services, despite their courageous record in two world wars, as well as in the Korean war and numerous peacekeeping operations.

The U.S. wants to give him a bronze star, though.

UNITED NATIONS SEX SCANDAL UPDATE: 15-year-old girls used for sex and women forced to dance naked on bars:

“The women who refused were locked in rooms and withheld food and outside contact for days or weeks. After this time they are told to dance naked on table tops and sit with clients.

“If the women still refuse to perform sex acts with the customers they are beaten and raped in the rooms by the bar owners and their associates. They are told if they go to the police they will be arrested for prostitution and being an illegal immigrant.”

The tribunal has heard that after sending the e-mail Mrs Bolkovac, who was investigating human trafficking and forced prostitution, was demoted and removed from front-line policing.

Where’s Mary Robinson on this one?

STEPHEN GREEN disses Saudi Arabia. Tremble, Abdullah.

DISAPPEARING INMATES? Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman has been moved, and even his lawyers can’t contact him. I know he’s a terrorist, and I know he’s been directing terrorist operations from within prison. But still. This doesn’t seem, er, kosher to me.

UPDATE: Reading between the lines on that story, it’s possible that he’s moved into the Witness Protection Program, which would mean he’s cooperating with the feds. Interesting possibility.

“FURTHER EVIDENCE THAT CONDI RULES” — via Melissa Schwartz.

LARRY TRIBE thinks chimpanzees should have the same legal rights as humans. Ribstone Pippin thinks Larry Tribe is. . . well, just wrong.

Me, I think that you shouldn’t have standing to sue unless you also have the ability to sue for malpractice. Otherwise it’s just a full-employment-act for lawyers, with no penalty if they screw up.

OSAMA BIN LADEN’S new guest blogger is mad at Colin Powell for not rescuing him, but luckily you can blog from anywhere. . . .