WELL, THE TERRORISTS MOSTLY KILL ARABS AND MUSLIMS: Big bomb attacks in Egypt, killing 43 by current count. It’s likely that number will rise. Gateway Pundit, who did not have dental surgery today, is rounding things up.

I predict that this will only encourage the loss of patience with Islamist radicalism that is already sweeping the world. That’s the problem for terrorists: If they try to terrorize, they make people mad. If they don’t, then, well, they’re not really terrorists.

THERE’S A NEW DRAFT OF THE IRAQI BILL OF RIGHTS, somewhat improved from the last one. Publius has the scoop, and notes that the drafting process is ongoing.

UPDATE: Dave Price thinks this deserves more attention.

JOSEPH BRAUDE writes on the importance of pluralism as a means of defeating terror.

There’s something to this notion, of course, but there’s also a big difference between pluralism and multiculturalism, of the sort practiced in England. Perry de Havilland has a post that makes clear what the difference is. Excerpt:

If what we are trying to defend is a pluralistic tolerant society, then we have to make sure that the message is not just “throw the wogs out!” but rather “You are welcome here if you are willing to assimilate to a sufficient degree.”

But how does one define what that ‘degree’ is exactly? I am not talking a Norman Tebbit style “cricket test” but rather a willingness to tolerate ‘otherness’. We do not need Muslims to approve of alcohol or women in short skirts or figurative art or bells or pork or pornography or homosexuality or (particularly) apostasy. We have no right to demand that at all and obviously not all Anglicans approve of some of those things, so why require that Muslims must? No, what we do have the right to demand (and that is not too strong a word) is that they tolerate those things, which is to say they will not countenance the use of force to oppose those things even though they disapprove of them. In fact it is not just Muslims from whom we must demand such tolerance.

If we can get them to agree to tolerate those things, then it does not matter if Muslim women wear burquas because as long as they are not subject to force, a woman may elect to say “Sod this for a game of soldiers!” and cast off that symbol of misogynistic repression… and if she does not do so, well that is her choice then… but she must have a choice. They do not have to look like us (I do not hear calls for Chinatown to be razed to the ground), they do not have to share our religion(s), or lack thereof, but they do have to tolerate our varied ways and if by their actions or words they show they do not, we have every right to regard them as our enemies and take action to defend ourselves.

For decades the supporters of multiculturalism have used tax money and government regulations to actively discourage assimilation of immigrants into the broader society, preferring to see communities develop which favour ‘identity politics’ better suited and more amenable to their own collectivist world views. And now we are paying the price for that. We will not be able to defend ourselves physically or preserve our liberal society unless we stop tolerating intolerance, and that includes not just fundamentalist Islam but also the anti-western bigotry of the multiculturalists.

Indeed. And read this, too.

MICKEY KAUS DELIVERS SOME DIRT on John Roberts: “Supreme Court nominee John Roberts appears to drive a Chrysler PT Cruiser. This may be the scariest thing I’ve heard about him. … An ugly, immature attempt at returning to an earlier era! Is that what the Constitution will look like after Roberts is through with it?”

SOME INTERESTING SENATE TESTIMONY BY DONALD TRUMP on the United Nations’ inability to manage a construction project. Follow the link for a transcript and an audio file.

UPDATE: Background here.

LAST ROUND OF DENTAL SURGERY was this afternoon; hence the interruption in blogging. If that guy in Rockwood hadn’t pulled out in front of us years ago, I wouldn’t have had to go through this.

WAR-POSTURING PRODUCES BLOWBACK:

Soldiers from Massachusetts and Hawaii who work at the U.S. military detention facility at U.S. Naval Base Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, gave visiting home-state senators a piece of their mind last week.

Sens. Edward M. Kennedy, Massachusetts Democrat, and Daniel K. Akaka, Hawaii Democrat, met with several soldiers during a visit led by Armed Services Committee Chairman Sen. John W. Warner, Virginia Republican.

Pentagon officials said soldiers criticized the harsh comments made recently by Senate Democrats.

Sen. Richard J. Durbin of Illinois, the Senate’s No. 2 Democrat, last month invoked widespread military outrage when he compared Guantanamo to the prison labor systems used by communist tyrant Josef Stalin, Cambodia’s Pol Pot and Adolf Hitler.

“They got stiff reactions from those home-state soldiers,” one official told us. “The troops down there expressed their disdain for that kind of commentary, especially comparisons to the gulag.”

Maybe some of these soldiers will campaign against them, when they get out. (Via Hubpolitics).

UPDATE: The momentum builds.

And Austin Bay says we need to hear more on this story.

I FORGET WHICH MULLAH IT WAS who opined that women’s hair gives off dangerous, mind-altering rays if left uncovered — but I couldn’t help but think of that when I read this idiotic claim that porn produces “erototoxins” in the brain. Or perhaps I should call it an idiotarian claim.

Bah, humbug. I say: Democracy, Whiskey, Sexy!

GAYPATRIOT NOTES that terrorists are openly targeting gays and wonders if the lack of reaction stems from prejudice.

AUSTIN BAY looks at the Iraqi Army’s progress.

Also, his cover story in The Weekly Standard is now online.

THIS WEEK’S CARNIVAL OF THE RECIPES is up!

CONDI IN THE SAHARA: Gateway Pundit has a roundup with pics and video.

IN THE MAIL: James Hirsen’s Hollywood Nation : Left Coast Lies, Old Media Spin, and the New Media Revolution. It’s another book that the Insta-Wife stole on its arrival, but she reports that Hirsen has a wicked sense of humor.

TRYING AGAIN?

The man shot dead by police at a South London Tube station this morning is believed to be one of the bombers who escaped after yesterday’s failed quadruple attack across London, police sources have told The Times.

Specialist armed police shot the man five times after he vaulted a security barrier at Stockwell station and attempted to board a stationary Tube train.

Lots more here.

FREDERICK TURNER writes on Darwin among the believers.

UPDATE: Rand Simberg responds.

ETHNIC CLEANSING IN THAILAND:

The Islamic militants are trying to do some ethnic, and religious, cleansing in the Moslem south. The three southern provinces have a population of some 1.8 million, and only 360,000 of those are Buddhists (the religion of the majority of Thais, who are ethnically different from the Moslems, who are Malays). The terror campaign is having some success, as some ten percent of the southern Buddhists have left the south in the past six months. But many of the remaining Buddhists are arming and preparing to defend themselves, and stay in the south.

Somebody send them some guns.

TOM MAGUIRE IS STEAMING. He says there’s a press coverup in the Plame affair.

CISCO AND CHINA: Rebecca MacKinnon is still on the case. “The fact that Cisco clearly has no qualms about doing business with the Chinese Public Security Bureau is odious.”

MICHAEL BARONE PREDICTS: “Justice Roberts will do much to redefine what is the mainstream in American constitutional law.”

UPDATE: Things that everyone knows are sometimes wrong — Roberts apparently is not a member of the Federalist Society.

PRIVATIZING SPACE: The Christian Science Monitor has an interesting survey:

At a time when the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) struggles to return its aging shuttle fleet to service and realign itself to implement President Bush’s blueprint for sending astronauts to the moon and beyond, several companies and interest groups are pursuing their own vision for putting humans into space more cheaply. “If we drive down the cost of transportation in space, we can do great things,” Mr. Musk insists.

The goal: to loft people and cargo at one-tenth the current cost. Building reusable rockets is only the first step. Industry sources say NASA, too, will have to buy services and hardware – at lower cost – from a broader cast of aerospace characters than the traditional players. And while taking the lead in high-risk human exploration of space, the government also needs to build an infrastructure in orbit – such as the space station – from which private companies could launch missions and conduct research.

“This is an optimistic vision,” acknowledges George Whitesides, executive director of the National Space Society in Washington, D.C. “But when you look at manned spaceflight at a broader level beyond the president’s space-exploration vision, that’s when it really gets exciting.”

Indeed. (Via Rand Simberg). I just got the latest issue of the Chicago Journal of International Law (not online yet, alas) which has a symposium on space law including a small contribution of mine. There’s a lot of very interesting stuff on space tourism and property rights.

THE FREE KOREA BLOG has lots of stuff on the Freedom House briefing session on North Korea. Just keep scrolling, or go here and work your way back.

THE HOUSE VOTED TO oppose withdrawal from Iraq and support operations at Guantanamo. I’m sure that will be the lead story on tonight’s news.

IT’S ALL ROBERTS ALL THE TIME at Ann Althouse’s place. Just keep scrolling.

THE ECONOMY SEEMS PRETTY GOOD TO ME, but CBS has been saying otherwise.

Well, the economy isn’t very good for CBS.

TOM MAGUIRE looks at the emerging case against Karl Rove. But the most amusing bit is the dual Google Ads flanking his post.

UPDATE: Some thoughts on anonymous sources from Walter Pincus.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Ed Morrissey is playing guess the author.