The draft EU Constitution is gradually making its way back into the headlines now that a number of efforts are underway to revive the dead document following the decisive French and Dutch rejections in 2005. Yesterday, I attended a presentation by Professor Alfred Pijpers, senior research fellow at the Netherlands Institute of International Relations Clingendael, who had an insider's perspective on the European constitutional debate.

Pijpers began to outline what in his opinion had contributed to the failure of European political integration. An interesting start as it presupposed that such failure needed to be rectified; it established political integration as a worthy goal. National diversity was the obvious one, but the success of economic integration among EU members has actually strengthened the nation state (think of wealthier nations), and thus paradoxically weakened European political integration. Other factors continued to be the expectation that NATO remains the vehicle of choice for European defense matters rather than an EU force, while the current institutional set-up was according to Pijpers not exactly designed for ‘collective strength’.

All these points, negatives in the eyes of some, serve to underline the original intent and purposes with which the European project was designed, and which in Lady Thatcher found one of its last strong promoters: a free-trading Europe of independent nation states. The draft constitution is therefore exactly the key vehicle for those who want to undo this loosely arranged integration, take it to a political level and satisfy the needs of this new and stronger Europe. How is this justified?

First and foremost there is a need for a unifying instrument that aggregates all the various pieces of Euro-legislation into one comprehensive document, which in and by itself is not an altogether unworthy objective. More contentious however is the attempt to restructure the presidency and unify foreign policy and create two powerful positions that would take care of these rather than continue the current arrangements that rotate power among nations on a semi-annual basis. In order to justify this Pijpers went as far as arguing that a presidency by Slovenia, a nation of some two million souls, could hardly be representative for a union representing some five hundred million inhabitants. One can argue in response that many Euroskeptics would feel much more at ease if European relations with for instance Washington would be conducted from Ljubljana rather than from Paris or Madrid. Lastly, there was the issue of ‘separation of competence’ which required a clear definition of where national jurisdictions ended and European ones started.

All in all these arguments make it abundantly clear that an EU constitution in whatever format is designed precisely to weaken the nation states and strengthen an ever centralizing union. Judging from the reasons as to why political integration has so far failed it would seem that this forced effort to let it succeed could potentially sow the seeds of its own destruction.

It was all strong stuff for the free trading Fraser Institute crowd who judging from some of the questions were not all that confident about this process in a world where regions are increasingly pulling away from political centers rather than veering towards them. I asked the question why there is hardly any debate during general elections about Europe, since the collective vents of anger in France and The Netherlands ended as soon as the ‘no’ ballot was cast. It would have graced these nations if they would have engaged in a constructive debate about what they would want Europe to look like, rather than reject it and let the matter be handled by the very elites that had brought European integration so perilously close in the first place. The answer from Pijpers was that voters could not get all that excited about European issues in national contests and that other pressing issues – pensions, mortgage rate deductibility, crime, you name it – were far more compelling for parties to campaign on and get voter attention.

Somehow that answer left me unsatisfied as it begs another question. Why could the French and Dutch - and the Brits who would surely vote ‘no’ – remain so disengaged about something that they do when directly asked, care about? Are the political parties indeed representative of certain elitist attitudes that prefer not to engage their constituents into a real hard debate about sovereignty? Or are Europeans themselves to self-absorbed to prefer short-term economic questions over long-term political ones? Most likely both and although my question wasn’t answered Pijpers’ lecture made it very clear that the forces that want to see a ratified EU constitution have a very good chance at prevailing, with or without voter input.

A number of readers have pointed me to this article by Pascal Bruckner who assails Ian Buruma and Timothy Garton Ash and their approach to multiculturalism. Certainly not an easy undertaking as evidenced by Buruma's eloquent riposte.

Talking about multiculturalism and some of its consequences, here is a TV-interview with Munira mirza one of the authors of the hotly debated report ‘Living Apart Together: British Muslims and the paradox of multiculturalism’. Note the last part where the interviewer tries to steer Mirza towards the 'Clash of Civilizations' theory. In response, she makes it very clear that conflicts and confusion within the West as well as ruptures within the Muslim world are the key dynamics that are currently fueling radicalization and jihadist sentiments.

While the blogosphere jumped on a British report which argues that multi-culturalism has driven an entire generation of young Muslims to radicalization, few noticed how some jurisdictions try very hard to pre-empt this phenomenon. A town in Quebec (!) passed a drastic motion seeking to preserve certain 'western values':

A rural Quebec town has taken the unusual step of formally declaring that it is forbidden to stone women in public — part of a list of “norms” that it says is aimed at potential immigrants.

Herouxville, about 165 kilometres northeast of Montreal, passed a document at a town council meeting this month that outlines what it considers to be its official behavioural norms.

The document, sent to both the provincial and federal governments, states that “a woman can. . . drive a car, sign cheques, dance, decide on her own.”

However, covering one's face other than on Halloween, burning women alive or burning them with acid is not considered acceptable.

Let's just say that its rural location helped in getting this motion in place, as I am not too sure it would have received a particular warm welcome in some of Quebec's urban centers.

UPDATE: Of course, a backlash against Herouxville's attempt to curb the excesses of multiculturalism is underway and when that happens the distinctions between 'race' and 'religion' blur almost instantly:

But some Muslim leaders have called the code a thinly-veiled example of xenophobia.

"Racism is coming out of the woodwork now, and it's not being obscure or subtle," said Salaam Elmenyawi of the Muslim Council of Montreal.

NOTE: If you have the time, you may want to consider reading the entire report about the British situation at the website of the think tank, Policy Exchange, here. Its lead author, Munira Mirza, has been featured on Peaktalk before.

While Bruce Bawer is impressed with Tony Judt's Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945 he has some reasonable doubts about the objectivity in the work of New York University's well-known historian. There is much to be learned from Bawer's critique written for the Hudson Review and you would have to read it all to fully appreciate it, this quote is one of my favorites:

Judt expresses the hope that the European public will develop a “patriotism for Europe”; but given how the EU works, with key decisions made not by the European Parliament but by unelected technocrats, the “patriotism” he longs for would have to be founded not (like American patriotism) on a devotion to liberty but on a deference not unlike that of a serf toward his feudal lord. Judt even goes so far as to say that the disorganized, unpremeditated way in which the EU took form was a good thing because

very few lawyers or legislators in even the most pro-European states of the European “core” would have been willing to relinquish local legal supremacy had they been asked to do so at the outset. Similarly, if a clearly articulated “European project,” describing the goals and institutions of the Union as they later evolved, had ever been put to the separate voters of the states of western Europe it would surely have been rejected.

In other words, the undemocratic way in which Western Europeans’ democratic rights were gradually siphoned away from them is something to celebrate.

And there are more gems to be had in this lengthy review, so I recommend that you read the whole thing.

Despite its huge importance, Iraq is under-reported according to Michael Yon. Undeterred, he files the second installment of his Desolate Roads reports.

The Garibaldi Heights, as seen from the Squamish estuary.

Or rather a blogger's diversion. Blogger Tino Buntic is collecting photos of 2000 bloggers and you can see them all here. Of course, it is another game for some to increase their Technocrati rankings - I actually discovered this through Dr. Helen - and I just couldn't resist participating in this one. It took me a while to find my photo on the dense mosaic, but eventually I figured it out. I am stuck between one Rob Edger, of all two thousand an active Stéphane Dion campaigner, and an obsessed video gamer. So, the fun is not so much in boosting your rankings, but in discovering new blogs. Enjoy.

Henryk Broder, one of the few non-Anglo-Saxon writers to focus on Europe's dark future has written a book called "Hurra, Wir Kapitulieren!" ("Hurray! We're Capitulating"). Judging from the excerpts there are probably few new insights offered by Broder, but the German setting gives us some fairly unique anecdotes. This in particular struck me as, well, instructive:

Oskar Lafontaine, a one-time chairman of the Social Democratic Party and German chancellor candidate, sees "commonalities between leftist policies and the Islamic religion." In an interview with Neues Deutschland, he says: "Islam depends on community, which places it in opposition to extreme individualism, which threatens to fail in the West. The second similarity is that the devout Muslim is required to share his wealth with others. The leftist also wants to see the strong help the weak. Finally, the prohibition of interest still plays a role in Islam, much as it once did in Christianity. At a time when entire economies are plunging into crisis because their expectations of returns on investment have become totally absurd, there is a basis for a dialogue to be conducted between the left and the Islamic world."

Lafontaine called upon the West to exercise self-criticism ("We must constantly ask ourselves through which eyes the Muslims see us") and expressed sympathy for the "indignation" of Muslims. According to Lafontaine, "people in Muslim countries have experienced many indignities, one of the most recent being the Iraq war. What we are seeing here is resource imperialism."

Lafontaine's theory of "commonalities" is a very good example of how Europe's future might unfold and I find it a more realistic scenario than the demographic takeover Steyn pictures. At the same time it is equally scary, maybe even scarier if you contemplate that it is Europe’s progressive camp that is now more than willing to subordinate freedom and western values in order to fish in a pond of huge electoral potential.

Some may consider Lafontaine to be on the fringe, but his Linkspartei (‘Left Party’) did extremely well in the last German federal election. As the traditional Social-Democrats are increasingly moving to the center as Merkel’s coalition partners, there is room on the left and Lafontaine’s party will no doubt move into this fresh and attractive space. That by the way is not dissimilar to the Dutch situation where Labour was pounded in the recent election, forced to join a coalition with the Christian-Democrats and the Socialist Party is cleverly picking up the traditional left and new-left voters. They too will have discovered the benefits of finding ‘commonalities’.

Canada has reached a settlement with Maher Arar for some $10.5 million, about 9 million in US funds. Good news for Arar who will no doubt use this as ammunition to go after US authorities in order to get compensation from them and to be removed from a US security watch list.

This is the fall-out of deporting terror suspects to nations that torture and it is very instructive in how not to fight the war on Islamist terror. I've discussed this case in detail a while ago in a lengthy post about the Arar case.

Does it exist? Yes, according to David Hirsh who launched the Engage website which seeks to address the ongoing multi-layered campaign for a cultural and academic boycott of Israel.

Hirsh is interviewed by the Independent here, and Jeff Weintraub has some valuable thoughts about all of this, as usual.

The phenomenon is by the way not just restricted to cultural and academic boycotts. Various public sector unions in Canada have developed a unique and focused foray into foreign affairs: a solid anti-Israel platform. Last year the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) ventured into this arena with its own Israel boycott. And before that, the BC Teachers Federation tried to pass a motion condemning Israel's security wall, but the union's excutive retreated following a public outcry and pressure from Jewish members and community groups. And only last week an anti-Israel motion from the Ontario teachers union was defeated by its membership:

An Ontario teachers union local in Toronto has overwhelmingly rejected a controversial motion asking for a condemnation of Israel's treatment of Palestinians.

The motion, including a call to create classroom materials on the conflict and to support an international boycott of Israel, was brought to the Ontario Secondary School Teachers' Federation by English teacher and Jewish activist Jason Kunin, who has often criticized the Israeli government, and Hyssam Hulays, a computer science teacher.

It had caused an uproar among Jewish advocacy organizations that feared the motion could result in anti-Semitism in the classroom.

While some may take comfort from the fact that these motions were never formally adopted, the frequency with which they are tabled leads me to believe that we haven't seen the last of them. And even without a formal union policy you have to wonder to what extent history and current affairs are being treated these days in Canada's public high schools.

Ayaan Hirsi Ali has started promoting her new book. As always, book tours are good for some interesting snippets of news and during her stop in Barcelona Hirsi Ali revealed more about the sequel to Submission which is currently in development.

Note by the way how one book is branded for different geographical markets. In Dutch - the version I read - it is 'Mijn Vrijheid' or 'My Freedom', in Spanish it is 'Mi Vida, Mi Libertad' which translates as 'My Life, My Freedom'. The English is blunter: 'Infidel'.

By analyzing his New York-record, Steven Malanga expains why Rudy Giuliani is a real conservative, a point often painfully missed by today's GOP base.

Richard Fernandez returns to The Philippines to write a fascinating essay about the century old Muslim insurgency in the southern parts of the island nation:

Dalasi, the King of Bulig had crossed from Basilan with a hundred ships. Three thousand kris-wielding Muslims closed in on on all sides of the fort to annihilate the Spaniards. Amid the noise of battle, a desperate council was held in the Spanish commander’s quarters. One priest volunteered to descend the walls by rope. He evaded the Moro pickets, stole one of Dalasi’s sailing vessels and made his way alone five hundred miles north to Manila to get reinforcements. Dalasi was killed and Fort Pilar beat back a two-month siege. The garrison’s survival was considered a miracle by the local community. But though that battle of Zamboanga was over the Moro war continued. It continues to this day.

It is revealing to note that successive presidents in Manila have never been able to either quell or settle the conflict. And as Fernandez reports, the initiative may now be firmly in the hands of the Muslim forces, funded through various overseas sources.

Tomorrow you can read Part II.

A reader points me to the book Unstoppable Global Warming: Every 1500 Years by Dennis T. Avery and S. Fred Singer. In short:

The thesis of this book, backed up by extensive research, is that the slight warming our Earth is undergoing now is part of a long-established cycle associated with activity on our sun, is not dangerous, and is not something we could do anything about even if there were any need to, which there isn't. If man-made greenhouse gasses are contributing to warming to anything more than the most trifling degree, the global warming activists have not come even close to demonstrating this.

This is more or less the train of thought that I've considered worthy of as much attention as that inconvenient truth. More on this next week when one of Al Gore's emissaries will give a presentation here in my neighborhood. An open mind is required, sure, but so is an open debate.

Five years after coining the famous 'axis' phrase, David Frum reflects on its shortcomings in an interview with Der Spiegel:

If you are looking for states that sponsor terrorism, I think there is no state in the world that has a worse record than Pakistan. And if you are concerned about the spread of extremist ideology, there is no state in the world that has a worse record than Saudi Arabia.

And, tellingly:

I would say that the story of the Bush Administration is the story of an administration caught halfway across the bridge; they did not want to face up to the magnitude of the problems. Its policies are premised on the assumption that we have a firm alliance with Saudi Arabia and Pakistan. If it had been possible in 2001 to address the problem of Saudi Arabia, maybe there never would have been an Iraq war.

So, from today's point of view, the Bush-record is hardly 'neo-conservative, argues Frum:

The story of the Bush Administration is a story of absorbing certain doctrines that are called "neo-conservative," but entrusting them to be executed by people who did not believe in those doctrines. And by always limiting the applications of those doctrines, so as not to touch on the really deep American commitments to Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. If Bush were a neo-conservative, as everybody said, then his response to 9/11 would have been that this originated in an extremism that the government of Saudi Arabia has whipped up in order to protect itself from the consequences of its own corruption.

It's a fascinating interview and it reveals the gap between some foreign policy idealists and the pragmatists in the executive branch. As I have mentioned time and again, Bush never was a real visionary and the events of 9/11 forced him to assume the role of someone who could by the force of ideology materially change the Middle East. It was however never all that, and as Frum says, "he tried".

So Bush's lack of conviction - something manifest in Tony Blair when he compelled his skeptical Labour Party to go into Iraq - combined with the reluctance to lean more heavily on such players as Saudi Arabia and Pakistan have created a questionable record. The net of that is, whatever the outcome of the Baghdad surge, the next occupant of the White House will have to somehow deal with an enlarged 'axis of evil'. And in that, even a Democrat would have to borrow far more from neo-conservative thought than Bush ever did.

It is probably a little too difficult to assess al-Qaeda's current operational strengths from listening to Ayman al-Zawahiri's video missives, the latest one of which emerged yesterday. So, it is better to let Peter Bergen put everything into perspective and his latest piece reveals that the group has recovered from the many setbacks it endured right after 9/11 and is now well positioned for more terror attacks in the West. All of that has been facilitated by favorable conditions on the ground in Pakistan and Afghanistan:

The tribal areas of Pakistan have proved to be a comfortable home for Al Qaeda--and that isn't going to change. The Pakistani government has already concluded peace agreements with local militants (but not, obviously, Al Qaeda) in two of the seven federally administered tribal areas along the Afghan border, and it is likely to reach additional peace deals this year. That means the Pakistani army will gradually pull out of these areas, which can only help Al Qaeda.

Meanwhile, on both sides of the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, the Taliban has staged a comeback while virtually merging with Al Qaeda. The Taliban were a provincial bunch when they held power in Afghanistan, but, in the past couple of years, they have increasingly identified as part of the global jihadist movement, their rhetoric full of references to Iraq and Palestine in a manner that mirrors bin Laden's public statements.

This adds to the general sense of doom that is enveloping the poorly resourced NATO mission in Afghanistan. Any assessment of that effort by the British, Canadian and Dutch governments needs to take account of what Bergen is saying here, but I doubt it will.

NOTE: The Economist has a similar piece this week, Al-Qaeda, on the march.

AND: Carlotta Gall of the NYT has more on the duplicitous role of Pakistan's intelligence community (via Oxblog).

At least that's the sentiment after the news broke that the former mayor hired Patrick Ruffini, formerly of the Bush 2004 campaign. Of course, most of us know Ruffini as one of the early days bloggers, take a look at his blog which has many election features here. Good for Giuliani, good for Ruffini, good overall. Yes, I like Rudy.

"Harriet the cow had 22 officers out to kill her". So what triggered the hunt for Harriet? The threat of EU court action.

Ayaan Hirsi Ali has started promoting her new book and was interviewed by Marie Claire. It is not available online as yet, but Fausta has the goods.

Some constructive criticism for Mark Steyn's America Alone, from Christopher Hitchens in City Journal. No excerpts, read the whole thing.

Cast your vote for your Republican and Democratic favorites, once a week. You can view the results here. Note that this is a rolling poll that will track the relative strength of candidates over time, so don't read too much into Obama's current spectacular lead. He owned the media these past two weeks. Hillary's weak start in this poll however is remarkable.

The Dutch are not increasingly secular according to this interesting piece from Joshua Livestro in the Weekly Standard, rather secularization in the lowlands peaked in the 1990s and faith is making a steady comeback, albeit in a different format:

Apart from being a herald of potential change from secular to post-secular society, youth churches are also an indicator of another significant development, namely the move away from the church of bricks and mortar to a less clearly recognizable, more informal setting. Youth churches seem to meet anywhere but in traditional church buildings: cultural centers, sports halls, school assembly rooms, parking lots, even in night clubs. The idea is that something that less resembles a traditional church might prove more welcoming to potential new believers.

[ … ]

The question, though, is whether Christianity is best placed to profit from this development. For better or for worse, Dutch Christianity is now largely an underground phenomenon. If an average Dutchman has any picture of Christianity, it is of empty pews and derelict church buildings.

As with the impending demographic bust, the jury is still out on this particular phenomenon and it may be a while before we can confidently claim that secularization was a late 20th century fluke.

There are however a number of remarkable indicators that God is not exactly ‘out’. As Livestro notes, for all the Muslim immigrants arriving in The Netherlands there is also a significant Christian influx - think of the droves of Catholic Poles for instance – that contribute to this phenomenon. Furthermore, during the last general election, the parties with a Christian background did surprisingly well, the small Christian Union will for the first time in its history form part of a coalition government. And lastly, I do think there is a natural tendency in atheist and individualistic western societies to somehow re-connect with spirituality and community. The question of course is if that urge is channeled in the right direction as I can think of many other houses of worship that would make continued secularization a far more preferable option.

Islam however is according to Livestro not all that well-positioned:

Even the most optimistic estimates of Dutch Muslim organizations put the number of converts to Islam at no more than a few hundred a year. With immigration from Islamic countries grinding to a halt and birth rates among the Muslim community further approximating average Dutch birthrates with each new generation, it seems unlikely to say the least that visions of a caliphate in Holland will come to pass in this century--or the next, for that matter.

Speculation of course, but the notion that birth rates will overtime fall into line with the local breeding rate – often a function of economics – is correct as noted here and here before.

Jonathan Rauch explains why supporting the surge in Iraq is the best option for now.

The first review of the Buscemi remake of Theo van Gogh's Interview is in – it’s playing at Sundance - and it isn't all that enthusiastic. There probably will be more comments on the film in days to come, all worthwhile stuff sure, but personally I am far more interested in how the media circus will deal with the fact that this is a Theo van Gogh movie.

UPDATE: A more positive review here.

Related Posts
Interview, Van Gogh & Buscemi
Risky Business
Remakes and Remembrance
Hollywood does Van Gogh

And for newcomers, the entire Theo van Gogh file is here.

Some of my readers - always generous with feedback – compelled me not to stray into that tempting morass of being the political blogger that likes Idol. But I do like it, and from time to time I will throw in my two cents about Season 6. Slate in the meantime is going big with Jody Rosen running a link-filled Idol blog. And of course, there is a political angle as he discovers:

Then there's the developing singers-in-arms subplot, with two members of the military already advancing to the next round. Rachel Jenkins, an Army reservist from Minnetonka, Minn., whose husband is currently in Baghdad, might be the stronger vocalist of the two.

But the smart early money is on Jarrod Walker, a Naval intelligence specialist with a pleasant Andy Griffith air about him, who won the USS Ronald Reagan's "Reagan Idol" competition, and sailed through to Hollywood, singing the Rascal Flatts weepie, "Bless the Broken Road." Might Americans purge their guilt about souring on the Iraq war by "supporting the troops" in the Idol competition?

It’s more than a coincidental sub-plot it would seem. The entertainment industry does have - against popular conservative perception – a vested interest in a good relationship with the troops. Cowell, ever the savvy marketer, must have figured that one out.

Trying hard:

The measures will be seen as a last-ditch attempt by Blair to rescue his legacy on law and order before he quits No 10 in the summer. Despite the prime minister’s boast that overall crime has been falling for the past decade, violent crime is rising.

Rogier van Bakel, who has taken me to task for being too generous with Blair-praise in the past, takes the latest anti-crime plans apart.

The WSJ/Heritage Foundation rankings for 2007 are out, and it makes for some fascinating reading as usual.

In the overall ratings Hong Kong, Singapore and Australia come out on top (here's the top-10), but if you want to have some fun download the excel worksheet and start sorting the data per category. What is the best place to be free from corruption? Iceland. And where can you best hire and fire your employees? Georgia. And finally, my favorite probably: the 'freedom from government' category. Best place to go? Guatemala, closely followed by Haiti. Hmm.

(hat tip: Johan Norberg, who as a Swede finds himself on the bottom of the 'freedom from government' rankings, together with Libya and Cuba)

Christopher Hitchens explains in detail in an interview with Hugh Hewitt why we can not abandon Iraq. And also, why it is so different from Vietnam. A must-read.

Re-purposing the concept of hate speech, The Weather Channel’s (TWC) and well-known climatologist Heidi Cullen advocates that:

" ... that broadcast meteorologists be stripped of their scientific certification if they express skepticism about predictions of manmade catastrophic global warming"

I've never been aware that TV-weathermen and women were 'certified', in fact I have always believed that they were just channeling whatever the meteorological reports said. So, engaging in a debate - scientific or not - is actually some good news. But according to Cullen any debate will have to start at a certain level of undisputed knowledge, hers to be precise:

Meteorologists are among the few people trained in the sciences who are permitted regular access to our living rooms. And in that sense, they owe it to their audience to distinguish between solid, peer-reviewed science and junk political controversy. If a meteorologist can't speak to the fundamental science of climate change, then maybe the AMS shouldn't give them a Seal of Approval. Clearly, the AMS doesn't agree that global warming can be blamed on cyclical weather patterns. It's like allowing a meteorologist to go on-air and say that hurricanes rotate clockwise and tsunamis are caused by the weather. It's not a political statement...it's just an incorrect statement.

Crushing dissent or manipulating the global warming debate? Probably both.

But I think that the real cause of this cold snap in the L.A./Hollywood area is that Al Gore has been shortlisted for an Oscar. Al just can't catch a break. - Glenn Reynolds

On both sides of the border the debate over the minimum wage has been reignited, sparking a lively debate. In the US, Mrs. du Toit rounds up some numbers and explains the futility of a minimum wage increase. In Canada, columnist Andrew Coyne explains some fundamental economic laws:

The point is not that those struggling to get by on very low wages should be left to their own devices. The point is that wages, properly considered, are neither the instrument nor the objective of a just society. When we say their wages are “too low,” we mean in terms of what society believes is decent. But that’s not what wages are for. The point of a wage, like any other price, is to ensure every seller finds a willing buyer and vice versa, without giving rise to shortages or surpluses -- not to attempt to reflect broader social notions of what is appropriate. That's especially true when employers can always sidestep any attempt to impose a “just” wage simply by hiring fewer workers.

Read both and ask whether the usual rebuke from the other side, "you're heartless", stands the test of logic.

In the past I have pointed to the futility of deporting radical imams as a way of curbing the terror threat, although the latest from the UK underlines the clear need to do so. The real infrastructure underpinning the Euro-jihad remains the internet and it is growing according to a recent Dutch government report:

The Dutch National Anti-Terrorism Co-ordinator Tjibbe Joustra says the Internet is acting more and more like a virtual training camp for terrorists. He finds it worrying that an increasing number of films giving detailed instructions on how to make bombs or explosive belts are appearing on the web. At the moment, the video clips are in Arabic, but he says it is only a matter of time before they appear in Dutch.

Mr Joustra says there are between 100 and 200 Dutch-language radical Islamic websites.

The obvious tension here is that in order to protect freedom it may be tempting for some governments to start blocking certain websites, or apply 'content-filters'. Needless to say, that is a little too drastic for our taste here. Just like handing in your bottled water at airports, there is a limit to what we should be giving up in return for some safety.

Still, to have a few hundred websites explain in Dutch how to strap on your suicide belt and step on the next commuter bus into Amsterdam is more than a little disconcerting.

My latest column about Canada's struggling Liberal Party is up over at Pajamas Media.

I've received a number of e-mails from readers asking about Steve Buscemi's remake of Theo van Gogh's film Interview. Well, it's done and you can go and see it this week at the Sundance Festival. More details here.

New York Magazine has a preview of Buscemi at Sundance:

In Hollywood, Steve Buscemi is the comic you recruit to pepper your star vehicle with some jittery laughs; he’s the nervy villain in your action movie; the virtuoso weirdo in your Adam Sandler comedy; the guy standing next to Nicolas Cage. But at the Sundance Film Festival, which kicks off January 18, Buscemi is an indie god among video-store clerks: patron saint of character actors, working stiffs, and last-true-believers everywhere. In L.A., the paparazzi might miss him, but in Sundance, they hound him—and this year, he knows how they feel.

I will link to any reviews that come out in the next week and if any of you happens to be at the festival and see 'Interview', let me know and I will post your comments.

Johann Hari reviews the recent avalanche of books on Europe and Islam and is able to muster some optimism:

It is a long, slow process, but it has already begun. Amidst the sound of suicide-murders and screaming on European streets, it is possible to hear the slow creaking of those gates – and the low rumble of the Islamic Enlightenment.

While I do not as yet share Hari's confidence about Europe being the cradle of true Muslim reform, I have noted the signs of progress that he refers to in the past: here and here. Not so much a 'cracking of the gates' but rather some sparks of hope. And note that these examples revolve around progress effected by Muslim women who have grasped the opportunities that are on offer in the free west. Any Islamic enlightenment will start with a redefinition of the role of the sexes and in that Europe is probably one of the better places to get this process started.

Here's another great example of balancing moral clarity and political expediency:

France’s interior minister, Nicolas Sarkozy, overwhelmingly captured the governing party’s nomination for president on Sunday, pledging to enforce laws, respect tradition, restore morality to public life and make the French work longer and harder.

In an 80-minute acceptance speech in a conference hall packed with 80,000 cheering supporters, Mr. Sarkozy also struggled to shake his reputation as the country’s unforgiving and divisive enforcer of law and order, portraying himself as a man of compassion.

“I have understood that humanity is a strength, not a weakness,” Mr. Sarkozy said from a vast stage bearing the colors of the nation’s tricolor flag. “I have changed.”

Remember, 2007 will be a crucial year for Europe. In France we can expect a lively battle between Blairite socialist Ségolène Royal and the McCainesque Sarkozy, both of whom appear to be determined to break with the political traditions of their respective parties. It has already earned Sarkozy the non-support of incumbent Jacques Chirac. Around the same time - we're talking May here - we will likely see Gordon Brown moving into Downing Street 10, replacing the man whose tenure is already being described as tragic.

At the same time Germany - not exactly under firm political control either - will hold the rotating chair of the EU presidency and try and reinvigorate the dead EU constitution. Interesting times and possibly a defining year for Europe's future.

Peter Beinart argues that "George Bush has screwed John McCain one more time". I fear he is right and that he is also correct in arguing that McCain has taken a position of conviction when it comes to supporting the troops surge. But that, alas, may not win you any elections and that is something that will also ultimately affect the Giuliani card.

And McCain is fully aware of the consequences. In the latest edition of Vanity Fair, Todd S. Purdum paints a picture of a man constantly challenged by finding the right balance between political expediency and doing what is right:

McCain says he understands how little public support there would be for more troops. "I read the polls all the time. But does that mean I'm not going to do what is morally right? I look you straight in the eye, my friend, and tell you: I want to be president of the United States. I don't want to be president of the United States so badly that I'm going to do something that I know is not right for the security of this nation and the young men and women that are defending it. So, if this position makes me viewed as too militaristic, or unrealistic, or whatever it is, I will more than happily take those political consequences, because I'll sleep a hell of a lot better."

Well said. Note that these words were spoken before Bush's speech last week.

Colby Cosh has discovered the middle ground in the debate over global warming.

The centre-left coalition consisting of Christian-Democrats, Labour and the Christian Union is almost there, but a number of issues need to be ironed out:

Labour PvdA leader Wouter Bos is expected to be appointed finance minister and deputy prime minister in the new coalition cabinet despite the fact he has not yet made a decision.

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Bos said in the election campaign that he would not serve as deputy prime minister under Christian Democrat CDA leader Jan Peter Balkenende. But he started refusing to answer such questions just days after the November election.

It is an old trick to let someone from the left manage the books as it facilitates an encounter of spending instincts with fiscal realities. It has worked before. Bos, who was state secretary at finance before, is shrewd enough to take on this portfolio, but also clever enough to understand that it may eventually alienate him from his base on the left. Developing.