Thursday digest

- A group of American senators, three Dems and one Republican, have decided to go to Syria and talk business with Iran's middle man Bashar Al-Assad. No doubt extending an olive branch to the Shi'ite Assad regime will help calm Hezbollah's appetite for wiping out reform-minded Lebanese politicians as well as launching attacks into Israel AND reduce the likelihood of Saudi Arabia inserting itself into the Iraq conflict to back up the Sunnis (which, by the way, is yet another example of why energy self-sufficiency is absolutely imperative).

- Usually, I like syndicated American columnist Cal Thomas, but his (lukewarm) endorsement of a loyalty oath to be applied to all European Muslims is a fundamentally illiberal idea that I am very uncomfortable with.

First, it would create two classes of citizenship, and second, it would be totally ineffective in combatting extremism. In fact, I think it would increase ghettoization rather than reduce it, leading to more recruits to Islamic mosques and terror networks. It's one thing to say "love it or leave it" like Tony Blair and John Howard have pretty much done, but quite another to treat people as guilty until proven innocent based on their race or religion.

A very bad call.

- Students, be sure to get registered for the White Privilege Conference and enrich yourself intellectually with what will no doubt be a weekend full of the free and fair exchange of different ideas this April in Colorado Springs.

You can even get a course credit for attending!