Well, that - the horrific stabbing murder of a British soldier wearing a Help for Heroes t-shirt in broad daylight by Islamist asshats in SE London - at least settles the question of what I run in today, and every day for the rest of the month....   (read more)

Today is the fifth anniversary of the 7/7 attacks. As is now customary, here's a brief list of things I did to commemorate it:...   (read more)

The world - or, rather, the U.N. and the "international community" - are now so far through the looking glass that the leader of the Jewish State had last month to stand up in front of the U.N. and wave the Nazi minutes planning the extermination of the Jews, and the plans for the Auschwitz-Berkenau camp, to demonstrate that one third of the Jewish race was actually exterminated. ...   (read more)

"On the current course, nuclear terrorism is inevitable. Indeed, if the United States and other governments keep doing what they are doing today, a nuclear terrorist attack on America is more likely than not in the decade ahead. With a ten-kiloton nuclear weapon stolen from the former Soviet arsenal and delivered to an American city in a cargo container, Al Qaeda can make 9/11 a footnote."...   (read more)

I'm a Martin Amis fan. There, I said it. Ordinarily, when people ask me who my favourite contemporary novelists are, I usually slip Amis in - but almost always add that "he's a guilty pleasure" or some such similar wiggly qualification....   (read more)

I actually have no idea how much coverage in the U.S. has been given to Dutch politician Geert Wilders - and his new short film, Fitna ("Strife" in Arabic). Wilders is a self-proclaimed defender of free speech and harsh critic of Islam, who has sought to restrict immigration into the Netherlands from non-Western countries. ...   (read more)

Year Israel Gave Gaza Back To The Palestinians: 2005 ... Number Of Rockets The Gazans Have Launched At Israel Since Then: 4,000 ... Number Of Seconds Residents Of The Israeli Town Of Sderot Have To Seek Shelter After The Sirens Go Off, But Before The Rockets Hit: 16...   (read more)

You know, we all feel a little down sometimes. Some days are better than others. But, lately, whenever I'm feeling blue, I like to think about a little something I have to look forward to: Dancing on that cocksucker bin Laden's grave....   (read more)

Ayaan Hirsi Ali is the Somali-born feminist, writer, and politician who has been living under 24-hour guard since a promise to kill her was found pinned to the body of Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gough...   (read more)

"And fight in the Way of Allah [1] those who fight you ... And kill them wherever you find them, and turn them out from where they have turned you out."...   (read more)

"Peace for us means the destruction of Israel. We are preparing for an all-out war, a war which will last for generations." - Yasser Arafat (Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, 1994)...   (read more)

This is an essay that I've been writing in my head - and reciting bits of out loud at various intervals, in variously heated discussions - for five years. I write and publish it now for the following reasons:...   (read more)

Shortly after posting my recent piece on the spectacularly and amusingly unsuccessful attacks in London and Glasgow, I realised I'd mislabelled the perpetrators in calling them "losers". Much more apt would have been the lovely, amusing, and oh-so-useful British epithet of "muppets". These guys truly are muppets of the first rank, and they're running a Muppet Jihad....   (read more)

"As I write these words, and as you read them, people of faith are in their different ways planning your and my destruction, and the destruction of all the hardwon human attainments that I have touched upon. Religion poisons everything." - Christopher Hitchens...   (read more)

"Israel will be annihilated." - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad...   (read more)

Woke up, for some reason, at half-six; couldn't get back to sleep. Put on my black armband and wore it all day. (This is the one I keep for September 11th every year, and which it now appears will be getting use twice a year.)...   (read more)

I am not yet born; O hear me, / Let not the man who is beast or who thinks he is God / Come near me....   (read more)

"The men of Normandy had faith that what they were doing was right, faith that they fought for all humanity . . . It was the deep knowledge - and pray God we have not lost it - that there is a profound moral difference between the use of force for liberation and the use of force for conquest."...   (read more)

Due to popular demand (well, the two people who made these demands are popular with me), I've implemented a few improvements to the dispatch commenting system:...   (read more)

In the days following the attacks two weeks ago, the natural resilience, sang-froid, and stoicism - not to mention sarcasm and dismissiveness - of Londoners seemed to coalesce into a more or less unified reaction to the bombers: "Sod off, you tossers."...   (read more)

And but so walking home through central London last night, I had figured I would be looking at at a total 28 Days Later scenario - walking through the eerily deserted streets of the city, my footsteps echoing off of the centuries-old stone....   (read more)

I'm totally fine. I'm sick of sending these sodding "I'm fine" messages from the scenes of atrocities, I can tell you that. But, otherwise, I'm fine....   (read more)

Self Portrait (Atocha), 2004 - (mixed digital media)...   (read more)

The opening poem (one of my all-time faves) couldn't be more apt. It went through my head so many times as Josh and I traveled through Spain. The third verse haunted me as we climbed up into the sky, amid the awesome construction of Barcelona's Sagrada Familia....   (read more)

Madrid is draped with flags - Spanish flags, with big black ribbons over their hearts. The workaday flags are all at half-mast, including in the 17-century Plaza Mayor, all be-frescoed and sad. And at the art nouveau building that fronts the Grand Via, there is a 4-story black ribbon....   (read more)

Long story short: I'm in Spain, but totally fine. I'm actually not anywhere near Madrid (though, since I neglected to send out my itinerary before I left, no one knows this), but rather in Barcelona. Heck, I didn't even know the extent of the carnage until 10 minutes ago when I stepped into this net cafe and got the NY Times....   (read more)

"Whatever the duration of this struggle, and whatever the difficulties, we will not permit the triumph of violence in the affairs of men - free people will set the course of history....   (read more)

The hop from Amboseli to Nairobi was painless, and our quick drive-by of downtown Nairobi tended to underscore why we weren't being dropped off in the city proper. Lamentably, these days, Nairobi is literally one of the most dangerous and crime-ridden cities on the planet. ...   (read more)