Here are some miscellaneous links of interest. Wouldn't want you getting bored, after all.
Following up on the story of Archdhimmi of Canterbury Rowan Williams and his desire to have UK law make space for Islamic Sharia law, Melanie Phillips asks an important question, is His Grace a holy fool? It should be easy to guess the answer.
Let us remind ourselves of the enormity of what this man said — that he thought one law for all was ‘a danger’, that sharia law was not an ‘alien’ creed and that its adoption by the British state was inevitable. With those unequivocal remarks people understood that this man would deliver Britain, the ancient cradle of individual liberty, into tyranny. The Archbishop may have manipulated the Synod today by playing both the penitent and the martyr. But the people of Britain, who are most certainly not the fools he takes them for, have finally decided they’ve had enough and are now ( thanks, ironically, to him) prepared to say so; and they will no longer tolerate the Church of England until and unless it rids itself of this holy fool and chooses a leader who will actually defend this country rather than capitulate to its enemies.
Meanwhile, Christopher Hitchens doesn't waste time with asking questions: To Hell with the Archbishop of Canterbury.
Picture the life of a young Urdu-speaking woman brought to Yorkshire from Pakistan to marry a man—quite possibly a close cousin—whom she has never met. He takes her dowry, beats her, and abuses the children he forces her to bear. She is not allowed to leave the house unless in the company of a male relative and unless she is submissively covered from head to toe. Suppose that she is able to contact one of the few support groups that now exist for the many women in Britain who share her plight. What she ought to be able to say is, "I need the police, and I need the law to be enforced." But what she will often be told is, "Your problem is better handled within the community." And those words, almost a death sentence, have now been endorsed and underwritten—and even advocated—by the country's official spiritual authority.
(hat tip: an unnamed reader)
And last but not least (on this topic), Richard Fernandez, "Wretchard" of The Belmont Club, thinks Dr. Williams might want to revisit his enthusiasm for allowing sharia to apply to family and marriage matters: Keeping it in the family.
Finally, those cursed Iraqis still act as if Harry Reid hadn't declared the war lost and Nancy Pelosi proclaimed the Surge a failure. Instead of obeying the Copperheads Their Betters in Washington and planning for an American withdrawal and negotiating their surrender to al Qaeda, they have the nerve to pass another important reconciliation law aimed at building a functioning federal democracy.
The provincial law calls for new elections in all Iraq's provinces, except those in the Kurdish region, on Oct. 1. The newly elected councils will then elect an executive committee and appoint a governor, the top provincial official. The law calls for the provinces to work with the United Nations on how the elections will operate and whether candidates will be selected by parties and voted on as a list or be listed on the ballot individually.
Most importantly, the measure would allow provinces to band together into regional governments that would begin making many decisions that now lie with the authorities in Baghdad.
(hat tip: Fausta)
This law had been a major demand of the Democrats in Congress, who now, of course, will say it isn't enough or it's too late or it's not written in the right color ink. Besides, Harry Reid has said the war is lost.
Don't they read The New York Times?
More at Hot Air.
UPDATE: We do indeed live in an age of miracles: even The New York Times couldn't ignore the progress in Iraq, albeit they give it the bleakest spin possible. (via CQ)
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