The Battle of 10024

I hate to get all of my blogging material from one newspaper, but this Peter Beinart review of Norman Podhoretz's new book is just too good not to pass on:

The most astonishing part of “World War IV” is Podhoretz’s incessant use of violent imagery to describe American politics. Critics of the Iraq war represent a “domestic insurgency” with a “life-and-death stake” in America’s defeat. And their dispute with the president’s supporters represents “a war of ideas on the home front.” “In its own way,” Podhoretz declares, “this war of ideas is no less bloody than the one being fought by our troops in the Middle East.”

No less bloody? That’s good to know. Next time I talk to my sister-in-law, an emergency medicine doctor serving at Camp Taji, north of Baghdad, I’ll tell her we have it just as rough here at home. Norman Podhoretz is practically dodging I.E.D.’s on his way to Zabar’s.

Upper West Side strident leftism is sometimes too much to handle even to me, but to think that the graying remnants of "Radical Chic" are at all threatening is just funny. On the other hand, National Review and Commentary neocons who live among the very people they're mocking while praising the resolve of voters and soldiers from places they would never think of visiting for more than a few days (and a generous honorarium) are even more hilarious. Praise the lord and pass the kreplach!