I've read through Vali Nasr's recent book entitled "The Shia Revival, How Conflicts within Islam Will Shape the Future". It's full of interesting information regarding Islam and the religious divide between Shia and Sunni muslims. The one big drawback that I saw in the book was Nasr's tendency to soft-pedal the fascistic mullah oligarchy currently ruling Iran, and to gloss over the nastier aspects of their brutal government. Otherwise, I do recommend the book for its useful background information.

While standing in line at Starbucks this morning—ordering my venti, triple shot, two pump, skinny mocha—I happened to notice the frontpage headline displayed on the newspaper on the rack by the counter. It read "Jewish Center Attacked".

For a moment, I thought I was transported back in time to the 1930s, and I was seeing something that might had been in the papers often during those years. The dateline could just as well had been Berlin or Vienna or Munich.

Instead, it was Seattle; the year was 2006.

Now regarding my earlier post concerning my comparing yesterday's Nazis with today's Nazis. As David Bryce-Jones recently observed, today's Nazis have a strategy and plan that they are carrying out, step by step. They are just like yesterday's in this regard. Here's an excellent observation from Mr. Bryce-Jones, which concisely summarizes what is happending right now:

Tehran is responsible for all the violence. Fascist murderers run Iran, and their intentions are identical to those of Hitler’s Germany. Even the language, with its creepy metaphors about Jews as insects or bloodsuckers, is a Thirties repeat. They must be calculating that this is the moment to show that God is with them and will ensure victory. President Ahmadinejad loves images about giving the Zionist tree a little shake because that is enough to uproot it. He and the ayatollahs have wished this violence on the region, absolutely indifferent to the fact that many Muslims—Palestinians and Lebanese—will be killed. That’s fascist murder for you. No doubt they also calculate that the uproar created by the Jews defending themselves will distract everyone’s attention from the Iranian nuclear program.

So my comparison between yesterday and today isn't quite so outlandish, nor is it purely rhetorical. The big difference this time around is that today's Nazis are already well advanced in their nuclear weapons program. The question remains, however, as to whether today's Western democracies any longer have the mental and spiritual wherewithal, and the will and determination, effective enough to resist the Islamofascist program. Personally, I am very pessimistic about the answer to this question.

If Israel can't defend itself, then none of us can defend ourselves.

Addendum: Like me, Michael Ledeen is also having a case of déjà vu; you can see this by reading his article on NRO entitled "The Thirties All Over Again?". And just as it was in the 1930s, so it is today: our leaders are being completely inattentive and feckless. It turns out that I'm not the only one sensing this.

Belief Net interviews the pungent Ann Coulter.

When it comes to Ms. Coulter, I think it's always better just to read for yourself what she has to say, rather than accepting someone else's second-hand spin.

Whenever I read the second-hand, blogospheric spin on Ms. Coulter, it usually amounts to something like "How about that Ann Coulter? Isn't she atrocious and shocking?" But when I go and actually read what she said, I don't quite see it that way. In fact, I wish I could come up with some of the impromptu bon mots that she comes up with such seeming little effort. I guess that indicates that I too am atrocious and shocking.

By the way, I did recently finish reading Ann Coulter's book "Godless: The Church of Liberalism".

This is my advice about Ann's book: don't bother listening to MSM spin about what Ms. Coulter did or did not say. Simply go buy the book and read it for yourself.