In response to:
Europe, Bruckner adds, "has vanquished its most horrible monsters. Slavery was abolished, colonialism abandoned, fascism defeated, and communism brought to its knees. What other continent can claim more?"
Really? How about the Americans largely helped to defeat fascism and communism? Seems to me that Europeans always give short shrift to the Americans. If ever Russia decides to roll through Georgia and other former Soviet republics with an eye on Western Europe, who do you think the Europeans will scream to for bloody help?
Newly returned from a week in Paris and well sated with delicious cheeses, magnificent art, and glorious (inexpensive!) wines, one is disinclined to reflect upon the decline of Europe. But the demographic reality so scathingly limned in Mark Steyn's "America Alone" cannot be long avoided. Those adorable French babies are not quite as scarce as, say, Lithuanian ones (a 2.1 total fertility rate is required for a society to maintain itself -- Lithuania's rate is 1.2), but the French tots are not quite adequate (1.9 percent). As for Europe as a whole, it's disappearing -- the average fertility rate is 1.53.
Many...
The NEA? Our mighty warrior president? Barney Frank? Hollywood movie stars? Am I warm?