ONE YEAR LATER, Dutch blog PeakTalk is remembering Theo Van Gogh’s murder.

UPDATE: More here, in the WSJ:

We have tended to see jihadist terrorism as something produced in dysfunctional parts of the world, such as Afghanistan, Pakistan or the Middle East, and exported to Western countries. Protecting ourselves is a matter either of walling ourselves off, or, for the Bush administration, going “over there” and trying to fix the problem at its source by promoting democracy.

There is good reason for thinking, however, that a critical source of contemporary radical Islamism lies not in the Middle East, but in Western Europe. . . .

Many Europeans assert that the American melting pot cannot be transported to European soil. Identity there remains rooted in blood, soil and ancient shared memory. This may be true, but if so, democracy in Europe will be in big trouble in the future as Muslims become an ever larger percentage of the population. And since Europe is today one of main battlegrounds of the war on terrorism, this reality will matter for the rest of us as well.

Read the whole thing.

A ROUNDUP ON QUOTE-DOCTORING AT THE NEW YORK TIMES where 2000th casualty Cpl. Jeffrey Starr is concerned.

Maybe they’re taking their cues from Media Matters these days . . . .

MORE LEAKS FROM THE CIA?

It depends on the cooperation of foreign intelligence services, and on keeping even basic information about the system secret from the public, foreign officials and nearly all members of Congress charged with overseeing the CIA’s covert actions.

But somehow the Washington Post found out. I think we need a special prosecutor to subpoena the reporter and prosecute the leakers.

THE NEW HISTORY CARNIVAL is up. So is the latest Carnival of Education. And don’t miss the latest Carnival of the Vanities, or The Tangled Bank, a science carnival. The Carnival of Computing, meanwhile, is about, er, computing.

And here’s the Blawg Review, a carnival of law-bloggers. It’s getting harder and harder for me to keep up with all these carnivals, but if I’ve missed yours it’s not because I’m ignoring you — sometimes nobody sends me a link, and sometimes it just gets buried in my massive volume of email. When I try to catch up, I search the word “carnival,” so please be sure you use that word in your email.

UNFLATTERING PUBLICITY for Jay Sekulow: “a financial empire that generates millions of dollars a year and supports a lavish lifestyle — complete with multiple homes, chauffeur-driven cars, and a private jet that he once used to ferry Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia.” (Via The Corner).

JEFF JACOBY WRITES on news from Iraq that’s not fit to print.

ANN ALTHOUSE: “Sovereign immunity law is difficult, so it is not surprising that people misread what Samuel Alito wrote about the Family Medical Leave Act.”

JAKE TAPPER SAYS THAT MEDIA MATTERS IS MISQUOTING HIM: “The dishonesty inherent in their truncating my quote may help satisfy their partisan martyrdom and help fill their professional coffers, but it does a disservice to the American people.”

SECOND INTIFADA UPDATE: Tim Blair has more on the riots in Paris.

UPDATE: Some readers write that this should count as the third intifada. Whatever. Meanwhile, reader David Mosier thinks it’s more than that:

If the rioting goes on for another couple of nights and spreads to other areas of the country, you’ve got 1968 all over again. France is ready to explode, as it was in 1968, and the all-night riots are lighting the fuse. Will Chirac be able to prevent an explosion that shakes the whole country? I doubt it. There’s too much pent up frustration in France, and not just among young Muslims. They might be the group that kicks off the insurrection, but once it’s kicked off, everybody in France with a beef (and that’s everybody)will join in. Just like they did in 1968. University students started it with student strikes in Nanterre (note, not in Paris)and it spread from there. Before it was done, almost every organized, or unorganized,
group in the country had joined in to bring down deGaulle. It would seem Chirac’s time is short. France hasn’t had a proper Gallic explosion since 1968; it’s long overdue.

Interesting. We’ll see.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Reader Jerry Davis emails: “I’m figuring the MSM will start reporting on the riots shortly after they find some way to tie it to our presence in Iraq.”

Good bet.

THE KYOTO RETRENCHMENT BEGINS:

Tony Blair appeared last night to undermine more than 15 years of climate change negotiations when he signalled a shift away from a target-based approach to cutting greenhouse emissions. Speaking at the end of the first day of a summit in London of environment and energy ministers, the prime minister said that legally binding targets to reduce pollution made people “very nervous and very worried”.

He said when the Kyoto protocol expires in 2012, the world would need a more sensitive framework for tackling global warming.

Since it’s quite clear that the United States will never ratify Kyoto, and Europe will never actually abide by it, it’s time for some rethinking.

SADDAM’S WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION make Harry Reid’s head explode — over at GlennReynolds.com.

THOUGHTS IN RESPONSE TO PEGGY NOONAN: My TechCentralStation column is up.

UPDATE: Reader Don Rylander emails:

Glenn, I think you’re right to be hopeful that the influence of these “elites” is on the wane; I just think it’s wise not to be too sanguine about its inevitability. The attitude Noonan describes in her Ted Kennedy anecdote reminds me of Britain’s Bloomsbury Group of the first part of the 20th century. Steeped in the decadence of their own subculture, lacking both vision and moral courage, they romanticized Britain’s decline as inevitable, and consequently helped bring it about.

The democratization of information brought about by the internet offers hope, but the desuetude of certain elites is no less a threat to civilization.

Yes, we still have to do the necessary work to pick up the slack.

IT’S LIKE A SECOND INTIFADA: Muslim immigrants continue to riot in Paris.

RED-LIGHT CAMERAS DEACTIVATED IN LOS ANGELES:

The city’s red-light cameras haven’t been working since June and could remain idle for several more months, a Los Angeles official said Monday. The contract for operating the cameras, which take photos of drivers who plow through a red light, expired as the city was deciding which company to choose for the next contract, Councilman Dennis Zine said. “I’d say it’s a victim of bureaucracy,” Zine said. “I’d be surprised if any of them were online before next year.”

That’s just as well, in light of this report:

A Fort Collins, Colorado intersection has suffered an 83 percent increase in accidents since a red light camera system was installed in 1997. The city’s program generates $734,000 in annual revenue from $75 citations issued at the intersection of Drake Road and College Avenue. Despite the lack of demonstrable safety benefit, officials are planning to add at least one speed camera this year and possibly another red light camera next year.

According to the Fort Collins Coloradoan analysis, which considered ten years of accident data, the collision rate at the intersection with a red light camera jumped from 1.31 per million vehicles entering the intersection in 1994 to 2.4 in 2004.

Philadelphia, too:

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania began its red light camera program last year claiming the device would reduce accidents, but accidents have actually increased betweeen 10 and 20 percent since the cameras began issuing $100 citations.

But traffic-ticket revenues are up, and that’s more important than your safety!

RAY KURZWEIL WILL BE ON CHARLIE ROSE TONIGHT, talking about his new book The Singularity is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology, at 11 pm Eastern.

BLOGGERS AS JOE NAMATH: As long as I don’t have to wear pantyhose.

THE DEMOCRATS OF 2005, turning into the Republicans of 1998? Something like that. Earlier thoughts on what’s going on, here.

UPDATE: Reader J.D. Johannes emails that Harry Reid must have forgotten this Senate Intelligence Committee report.

A CHARITY BLEG from the Insta-Wife.

SPYWARE from Sony? Let the lawsuits commence . . . .

GRAND ROUNDS is up!

MICHAEL BARONE thinks that Democrats won’t want to oppose Alito very hard.

GIVE ME A BREAK: Some people are against the cervical cancer vaccine because it could lead to more sex. Coming soon: New “helmets” opposed because they lead to more motorcycle riding . . . .

With both, there’s a legitimate question about whether it should be mandatory, of course. But I don’t think that’s really what’s motivating this.

UPDATE: Blogs4God writes:

Folks, I have to agree on this one. This isn’t like handing out condoms to under-aged kids without their parent’s knowledge and/or consent. This is a reasonable preventative measure for an opportunistic killer – specifically the second most common cancer in women worldwide and the leading cause of cancer-related death in women in underdeveloped countries.

Indeed.

ANOTHER UPDATE:

I didn’t mention this in the original piece, but there is sometimes an undercurrent of punitive prudery running through these arguments. One can make a good-faith argument against the vaccine, but sometimes people do seem to be thinking, way back in their skulls, “Well, you’re a dirty whore. A little cervical cancer’ll learn ya.”

Again, not to indulge in ascribing bad faith to any particular opponent, and certainly not to opponents in general. There are good arguments to be made on both sides of most hot-button social issues. I’m just saying that sometimes, from some, I get the vibe that unwanted pregnancy, AIDS, and even cervical cancer can serve as useful object lessons for women of easy virtue.

Indeed.

MICHELLE MALKIN’S new book is out. She’s celebrating with a photo essay and hoping for a chance to plug the book on Air America.

HERE’S A CONGRESSIONAL RESEARCH SERVICE REPORT on problems with testing procedures at the ATF.

I FINISHED JOHN BIRMINGHAM’S DESIGNATED TARGETS last night. Very enjoyable alt-history, and he focuses interestingly on the differences (and similarities) between the Greatest Generation of 1942, and the generation of just-after-today. Birmingham also has a blog, where he notes that he’s gotten a lot of grief for making Hillary Clinton (in the first book of the series, Weapons of Choice) “the most uncompromising wartime President in the history of the United States.”

I thought that was quite funny, and not entirely implausible. (That they put her name on a George Bush-class aircraft carrier is funny, too.) There are lots of criticisms you can make about Hillary, but even her critics don’t accuse her of lacking backbone, or a killer instinct. Birmingham’s book is full of insider references, including several to the works of Steve Stirling and Eric Flint. You don’t have to get them to enjoy the book, but they’re fun.