AYAN HIRSI ALI emigrating to the United States?

Hmm. Back in the 20th Century Europe lost a lot of smart people to religious persecution, and it’s never really recovered. You’d think they’d want to put a stop to that. Of course, there’s a backstory that goes beyond religious persecution.

UPDATE: Dave Weigel seems, strangely, to be almost pleased with Hirsi Ali’s problems. It’s one thing to agree, as Peaktalk does in the item linked above, that she deserves to resign. It’s another, however, to use that to dismiss the very genuine religious persecution she’s suffered with a passing comment.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Dave Weigel emails:

I see how you could get the (mistaken) impression I was pleased with Hirsi Ali’s persecution. My pithiness obscured my point, which is that the extreme immigration solutions of Hirsi Ali’s party ended up mitigating her emigration, and that’s something immigration restrictionists in Europe should reflect on. But maybe I doomed myself by trying to pithy at all about this topic.

Anyway, I wanted to point out the small irony that the first person I could find gloating about Hirsi Ali could well be a distant relative.

Fair enough. Pithiness risks misinterpretation, as I know all too well.