The 15 British sailors and marines held hostage by Iran, and the members of the Rutgers University women's basketball team both have achieved the highest status contemporary liberalism offers: victimhood. Writing in 1852 about the "emperor" Napoleon III (son of Napoleon's younger brother, who ruled France from 1848 to 1870), Karl Marx said history repeats itself, first as tragedy, then as farce.  The British hostage crisis moved seamlessly from the one to the other. Just like the Imus-Rutgers crisis.

I've never understood why people listen to smart-aleck jerks on trash radio like Don Imus and Howard Stern who get paid a lot of money to say nothing of substance but say it in a pseudo-clever, hyper-cynical, juvenilely outrageous way. But I sure am enjoying watching him squirm.  This is great karma.  His public persona, with the phony cowboy hat, the gravel voice, the wrinkled glower, was of a super tough guy, as tough as say, the British Royal Marines.  Turns out he's as much of a surrender pussy as they are. Imus should exchange his cowboy hat for a dhimmi head scarf like that worn by Pelosi Galore or Limey sailorwoman Faye Turney to best signify his submission to the gods of political correctness. Now, if that's all this teapot tempest is, yet another example of bottomless PC hypocrisy and Al Sharpton's unceasing effort to prey on white guilt, it'll soon be replaced by the next media frenzy.  The real question is whether the Imus scandal will wreck the presidential candidacy of Barack Hussein Obama, Jr.

Patricia Hewitt, Health Secretary in Tony Blair's cabinet, was upset by pictures broadcast from Iran of the 15 captive British sailors and marines, reported Christopher Booker of the Sunday Telegraph. "It was deplorable that the woman hostage should be shown smoking," Ms. Hewitt said.  "This sends completely the wrong message to our young people." When liberals cower when petty thugs make threats (which is pretty much whenever petty thugs make threats), conservatives,  understandably, suspect them of cowardice.  But Ms. Hewitt's bizarre response to her country's humiliation suggest something else is at work. The most remarkable aspect of this most recent Iranian hostage crisis is the lengths to which so many prominent people in the West have gone to make excuses for inexcusable Iranian behavior.

If you knew how to make life better for your fellow Americans, would you? The political class in Washington constantly claims it "cares about you," but when it comes to policy many do just the opposite. Most people understand the Republicans messed up by allowing nondefense spending to grow faster than the economy. The Democrats ran against the irresponsible Republicans by claiming they would be "fiscally responsible." So, rather than present a budget that would reduce the growth rate of domestic spending, they have just proposed one that would increase it, even above Republican proposals, and require increases in taxes. You can only wonder if they are even more brain dead than the Republicans.

Though The Poison That Is Killing The West has only been up for a short while, there's already a discussion thread on the User Forum.  Dennis Turner, for example, is pessimistic regarding war with Iran (he's pessimistic that there won't be war - I'm optimistic there will be!):

Sad to say, but I don't think we'll take them on. I think we'll issue an ultimatum banning Iranian naval forces from the waterway, but won't shoot when they violate the ban. I hate to be so pessimistic but I see this happening in Israel, where the threat is existential, with Rice pushing for final status issues with the PA while they do not recognize Israel, accept previous agreements, agree to collect weapons and dismantle the terrorist infrastructure, renounce violence, etc.