Zinger of the Day

Matthew Yglesias, responding to Martin "with this blog, I give you the gift of comedy" Peretz's observation that if a Muslim Martin Luther King existed he'd be killed:

Imagine that! A society where a figure like King could be imprisoned or even killed! Those Muslims sure are vicious and evil.

Yglesias wonders if "it's a problem that one of America's leading political magazines is owned and operated by a man whose political opinions appear to be primarily driven by bigotry against Arabs and Muslims." I actually think this is a great act of charity by Peretz.

Most of the pro-war opinion in Washington comes from neoconservatives and neoliberals who believe that failed states are worth fixing and that "eventually the call of freedom comes to every mind and every soul." I'm convinced this isn't the thinking of most Americans who supported the war. September 11 made them angry at the Middle East; they wanted to kill (or at least convert to Christianity) lots of people in the Middle East. Witness the success of 24, a thrilling drama in which special agent Jack Bauer does not win over terrorists by touching, E.T.-like, the lust for freedom they harbor in their hearts. Ann Coulter does a good job of clarifying this, but Peretz is a swell pinch-hitter.