They still have a few good writers, Derbyshire and Geraghty, for example, but on the whole they are predictable, in lockstep, and tedious.

Their rather parochial Likudnik obsessions are part of the puzzle.

So the “conservative” evangelical Mike Potemra says blasphemy and Maxim style soft core amuse him. Since the blasphemy is directed at the Blessed Theotokos, it’s apparently no big thang, being that she’s just some random woman that Catholics & Orthodox have a fetish for. As for the rest of it, gratuitous sex & violence are the new American way. Better porn than burkas any day.™ Yippee kie yay. (NB: pious Muslim Palestinians don’t wear burkas, they wear hijab, Mike. There’s a difference.)

All the dozen or so Palestinians that I know well (who’re all admittedly in diaspora) are all pretty secular, by the by. None of them are particularly fond of Israel. But none of them are on the record with me as wanting to “(first) put [Israeli] women in burkas and (second) exterminate them.” I’m pretty sick of this sort of gross over generalization and bigotry. Some twenty percent of the Arabs in the West Bank are Christians, many more are secularists. NRO’s Likudnik agitprop does nothing to help those people. In fact it advances US & Israeli policies that feed the very Islamicist fervor Mike professes to fear.

In the same vein Mike & Co. could give a damn about people’s sensibilities here, gratuitously sneering at what many of us hold sacred. This will - I hope - destroy their coalition. Their sacred golden elephant. I used to be a fellow traveler. Now I’d rather vote for Hillary than any Republican but Ron Paul. I’m not alone, I think.

It’s likewise no surprise that they have nothing but contempt for those “ragheads” over there. For their stupid desire to reclaim their ancestral home, all that nonsense. It’s the same spiritual malaise in both instances that prevents them from having any respect for the other. Either for Christians who take the first through third commandments seriously, or for Arabs who are oppressed and murdered by us. Not respecting Christians may lose them a few elections or more. Not respecting Muslims, especially those amongst them who are our enemies, will bring much worse consequences. But then these thugs will enjoy the affirmation of their fears, the opportunity to perpetuate the violence they so adore.