Opinion: In today’s pages: Belgium, Basra, and California’s big spender
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Writers Sam Harris and Salman Rushdie urge the protection of Ayaan Hirsi Ali:
Hirsi Ali may be the first refugee from Western Europe since the Holocaust. As such, she is a unique and indispensable witness to both the strength and weakness of the West: to the splendor of open society and to the boundless energy of its antagonists. She knows the challenges we face in our struggle to contain the misogyny and religious fanaticism of the Muslim world, and she lives with the consequences of our failure each day. There is no one in a better position to remind us that tolerance of intolerance is cowardice.
Columnist Jonah Goldberg explores what Belgium’s identity crisis means for Europe’s non-nationalist project. Lara Santoro says third world countries should have the right to produce generic versions of AIDS drugs. And Pasadena City College’s Warren Swil explains which appliances secretly drive up your power bill.
The editorial board asks Assembly Speaker Fabian Nuñez to come clean about why he had to spend thousands of campaign dollars on luxurious meals and goods. The board also explores what the British decision to leave Iraq means for the U.S. effort, and urges the governor to pass a school bill for better enrollment statistics.
Readers react to Bush’s claim that the CIA doesn’t use torture. Rory E. Morty of Germany says: ‘I don’t know which is more scary: that the United States tortures people, or that the president tries to convince his people that head slaps, freezing temperatures and simulated drownings do not constitute torture.’