Glenn Greenwald: The National Review mind

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/?last_story=/opinion/greenwald/2007/07/18/neocons/

The National Review mind
Glenn Greenwald

(updated below - updated again)

The New Republic's Johann Hari recently went on the National Review cruise and then filed this extraordinary report about what he witnessed (the full article is also available here). Hari mingled in with the NR faithful who, unaware that he was a reporter, provided him with material like this:

I lie on the beach with Hillary-Ann, a chatty, scatty 35-year-old Californian designer. As she explains the perils of Republican dating, my mind drifts, watching the gentle tide. When I hear her say, " Of course, we need to execute some of these people," I wake up. Who do we need to execute? She runs her fingers through the sand lazily. "A few of these prominent liberals who are trying to demoralise the country," she says. "Just take a couple of these anti-war people off to the gas chamber for treason to show, if you try to bring down America at a time of war, that's what you'll get." She squints at the sun and smiles. " Then things'll change."

And, at a dinner Hari attended on the first day:

To my left, I find a middle-aged Floridian with a neat beard. To my right are two elderly New Yorkers who look and sound like late-era Dorothy Parkers, minus the alcohol poisoning. They live on Park Avenue, they explain in precise Northern tones. "You must live near the UN building," the Floridian says to one of the New York ladies after the entree is served. Yes, she responds, shaking her head wearily. "They should suicide-bomb that place," he says. They all chuckle gently. How did that happen? How do you go from sweet to suicide-bomb in six seconds?

There was a virtual unanimous consensus that Muslims are taking over Europe and then the world. I've been reluctant to write about this article because -- as well-written, insightful and darkly amusing as it is -- it relies upon isolated, selected anecdotes to indict a broad political faction, a practice I generally dislike, given that it is the province of the Bill O'Reillys and Michelle Malkins of the world.

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