Here's Francis Fukuyama in Slate on Europe, America, immigration, and all that. This is a quote:

The problem that most Europeans face today is that they don't have a vision of the kinds of positive cultural values their societies stand for and should promote, other than endless tolerance and moral relativism.

Fukuyama mentions Bruce Bawer in his piece; here's another review of Bawer's book in the Philadelphia Inquirer.

I love these historical pieces Arts and Letters Daily links to, like this one from the Spectator on A.J.P. Taylor. I should try to write one.

Foreign Policy has this article on why China's not going to dominate the world anytime soon. Many Spaniards seem to feel that there needs to be something, someone, anyone, to "balance" American power, and often speculate and wishfully think about it in the newspapers. Of these, many feel it should be the EU, which isn't going to happen. A few think Russia will make a comeback, which is unlikely, as this other piece linked by A&L Daily shows. Quite a few would like to see some kind of Zapatero-Chavez-Castro-Kirchner-Lula Latino-Socialist bloc, but that's even less likely than the EU posing a challenge. And many think it will be China. Come on. China's per capita income is $1500 a year.

This article from the Wall Street Journal on the torture-murder of Ilan Halimi in Paris is a must-read. Let's say this clearly: Anti-Semitism is probably the only factor, along with anti-Americanism, that unites the Muslim world. Some are Sunnis, some are Shiites. Some are Arabs, some are Iranians, some are Turks. Some are reactionaries, some are revolutionaries. But they share the same enemies, the Jews and the Americans.