[Fwd: oh no]

My friend Chris Morris responds to my posting on Hirsi Ali:

B'no,

I was reading your site tonight to see if you were alive and found your note about Hirsi Ali. Much of what you say is consistent with what I have heard from abroad, esp. the Netherlands. But one thing you say is phenomenally ignorant: "Wait, the AEI is a think tank in Washington that supports Bush and is so right-wing that Hirsi Ali's political party (the conservative VVD) looks like a nambe-pamby liberal lot in comparison. I mean, these guys are off the scale." That is complete bs. The two biggest think-tanks in DC are also center: Brookings (center-left, Democrat), AEI (center-right, Republican). A former student of mine now works there. I might accept a post there (or at Brookings) if offered. I'd not accept a post at most other conservative or libertarian think-tanks. You are simply mistaken. And the stuff about being "off the
scale" is a cliche (and mistaken). Also, I expect that a lot of people at AEI don't support Bush. You'd be stunned to discover how little support he now has. But presumably you meant that many people there oncesupported him, and that may be right. (But surely /none/ of the
economists there ever did.)

I can't go on correcting your every error. You must start to stand on your own, especially as a holiday weekend is coming up and we're away.

Your devoted friend,

C

Chris is right. What do I know of the AEI other than what the newspapers tell me. Still, it is worth remembering that a New Yorker's moderate is a right-wing nut in most Bismarckian welfare states. So while I accept that the AEI is right-center in US terms, they are way off to the right in NL terms.