I’ve long thought the natural enemy of the Pak was the Indian. Given the crap coming out of Pakistan, which the government can’t (or more likely, won’t) control, I’m inclined to encourage a cage match. A billion vs. 167 million are the kind of odds I like.

Postscript: I find it moderately hilarious to see folks on the left defending names imposed by western colonialists over indigenous names. But if it makes us Westerners to blame for terrorism, I guess it’s in a good cause.

Just like the feminists who strike fearsome blows against the patriarchy by keeping their daddy’s name? (shamelessly stolen from PJ O’Rourke)

This may seem like a detail, but it isn’t, because what’s at stake is the whole concept of a cosmopolitan city open to its own citizens and to the world—a city on the model of Sarajevo or London or Beirut or Manhattan. There is, of course, a reason they attract the ire and loathing of the religious fanatics. To the pure and godly, the very existence of such places is a profanity. In a smaller way, the same is true of the Islamabad Marriott hotel, where I also used to stay. It was a meeting point and crossroads for foreigners. It had a bar where the Pakistani prohibition rules did not apply. Its dining rooms and public spaces featured stylish Asian women who showed their faces. And so it had to be immolated, like any other Sodom or Gomorrah.

Sorry, Coyote, but this was a sloppy post on your part.