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Walter Laqueur 86, historian of Europe and Russia, wrote a new book on Europe’s prospects. We are treated to a review by Theodore Dalrymple. For those not familiar with Dalrymple we have excerpts later from his Wikipedia entry.
It is Europe’s doom that Walter Laqueur explores and explains in this succinct and clearly written book. He does not say anything that others have not said before him, but he says it better and with a greater tolerance of nuance than some other works on this vitally important subject.
There are three threats to Europe’s future. The first comes from demographic decline. Europeans are simply not reproducing, for reasons that are unclear. …
… The second threat comes from the presence of a sizable and growing immigrant population, a large part of which is not necessarily interested in integration. …
… The third threat comes from the existence of the welfare state and the welfare-state mentality. A system of entitlements has been created that, however economically counterproductive, is politically difficult to dismantle: once privileges are granted, they assume the metaphysical status of immemorial and fundamental rights. The right of French train drivers to retire on full pension at the age of 50 is probably more important to them than the right of free speech—especially that of those who think that retirement at such an age is preposterous. While Europe mortgages its future to pay for such extravagances—the French public debt doubled in ten years under the supposedly conservative Chirac—other areas of the world forge an unbeatable combination of high-tech and cheap labor. The European political class, more than ever dissociated from its electorate, has hardly woken up to the challenge.
All this Laqueur lays out with exemplary clarity. He sees Europe, once the home of a dynamic civilization that energized the rest of the world, declining into a kind of genteel theme park—if it’s lucky. The future might be grimmer than this, of course: there might be a real struggle for power once the immigrants and their descendents become numerically strong enough to take on the increasingly geriatric native population. …
… Laqueur makes the important point that shortcomings of the host countries notwithstanding, many immigrant groups have thrived without difficulty. He might have added that they have all successfully overcome initial prejudice against them. There is no Sikh or Hindu problem in Britain; the country has recently absorbed half a million Poles without any obvious tension or difficulty. (Tony Blair, with his usual perspicuity, predicted that when Poland joined the European Union, 13,000 Poles would move to Britain.)
This suggests—and Laqueur has no hesitation in so saying—that there is a problem peculiar to the integration of Muslims in Western countries, at any rate, when they are in such large numbers that they are able to make whole areas their own. …
Gabriel Schoenfeld has a nifty piece of work in Contentions about the spinning of news out of London.
Charles Krauthammer on the dishonesty of Congress. Remember Mark Twain, “There is no native American criminal class, except for Congress.”
… The reason Congress loves corporate average fuel economy (CAFE) standards is precisely that they hide the cost — in the sticker price of a new car. Whatever blame there is for the unfairness of life — that energy efficiency is not free — goes to the auto company rather than the mandating body, namely Congress.
That’s the great attraction of ethanol, too. Another free lunch. The Senate bill mandates a quintupling of ethanol use by 2022. That might be a good idea, but it also has costs. With huge tracts of land now being turned over to grow corn for fuel, the price of corn already is rising, as is the price of other foods whose cropland has been taken over. The beauty of ethanol? It hides the price of purported energy efficiency in the most unlikely of places — your cornflakes. …
… I have no objection to paying more to reduce our dependency on foreign energy. But it is hard to conceive of a more politically dishonest and economically inefficient way to do it than with mandates that make private industry do Congress’s dirty work, hide the true cost of energy efficiency and perpetuate the fantasy of the tax-free lunch.
Immigration bill post-mortems were throughout the web. Here’s the thoughts of some of our favorites.
Debra Saunders is first.
In Washington, it is easier to pass a bad bill than a good bill. That’s practically a law. But as Washington learned last week, there is such a thing as a bill so bad that even Congress can’t pass it. So the Kennedy-Kyl Comprehensive Immigration Reform Bill tanked, as it most assuredly deserved to do.
Advice to Washington politicians who want to pass a bill that grants citizenship to some illegal immigrants: Don’t call it “reform.” Reform is supposed to curb abuse, not codify it.
Mark Steyn was in the Orange County Register.
On the eve of Independence Day, the people of this great republic declared their independence from the United States Senate under the stirring battle-cry, “No legislation without explanation!” The geniuses who’d cooked up the “comprehensive” immigration bill’s “grand bargain” behind the scenes in the pork-filled rooms had originally planned to ram it through in 48 hours before Memorial Day. And, right to the end, the bipartisan Emirs-for-life of Incumbistan gave the strong impression they regarded it as an affront to be required by the impertinent whippersnappers of the citizenry to address the actual content of the legislation.
Sen. Lindsay Graham, R-S.C., dismissed critics of the bill as “racist.”
Sen. George Voinovich, R-Ohio, complained that the peasants had somehow got hold of his phone number, and he felt “intimidated.”
Sen. Trenthorn Lotthorn, R-Lottissippi, said: Who cares if they call? …
Instapundit with thoughts about the next time.
Byron York in the Hill.
Rich Lowry in Townhall.
Victor Davis Hanson in his blog.
Fred Thompson was linked by Instapundit, so that’s here too.
New Editor posts on NY Times.
Cato posts on our similarities with Zimbabwe. Hint – Congress is involved.
In Zimbabwe, the government is ordering businesses to cut prices and threatening to jail executives who don’t comply, in an attempt to deal with inflation that is now variously estimated at somewhere between 4,000 and 20,000 percent a year.
Meanwhile, on Capitol Hill both houses of Congress have passed legislation establishing stiff penalties for those found guilty of gasoline price gouging. …
Adam Smith notes the start of Great Britain’s smoking ban.
Agoraphilia on the unholy alliance of Baptists and bootleggers.
GayPatriot starts our humor section announcing the recipient of the first annual JEC BOMA (James Earl Carter Bitter Old Man Award.) The comments were a hoot so they’re included.
Gabriel Schoenfeld posted on Carter’s UFO sighting. Seemed appropriate here.