Holidays!

Yep, like many another blogger I'm off for a couple of weeks to find summer -- if indeed it still exists down here in the mid latitudes of the South Pacific.

I won't be promising to to update this blog while I'm away -- but I won't be promising that I won't.

There is no excuse for not posting, none at all ... except for the very good reason that I'm really, really, really looking forward to a holiday.

So until then, my very best Christmas wishes to all of you many fine people who deserve it, and may the fleas of a thousand camels infest the armpits of all the rest of you.

And do feel free to rummage through my archives until Not PC re-opens for business, or perhaps to check out Robert Tracinski's pick of the top five stories of 2006.

1. No Leadership this year

The top story of 2006 is the failure of President Bush's leadership in the war, and its consequences: the painful Republican loss in the mid-term congressional elections, and the return to the offensive of the "Islamist Axis" led by Iran, which is now attacking on all fronts, from Somalia to Afghanistan.

2. The Weapon of Democracy

The second most important story of the year is the chaos in Iraq, in Lebanon, and in the Palestinian territories—and the ideological factor that is driving it. America has made the promotion of "democracy" into the centerpiece of its foreign policy in the Middle East, but the Iranians and their allies are taking advantage of the contradictions in the modern concept of "democracy" and are using it as a weapon against us. (This issue was also covered in much greater depth in the print edition of The Intellectual Activist.)

3. The Cartoon Jihad

The #3 top story of the year is the improbably named "cartoon jihad," which made clear to the West the nature of our enemy's goal in the War on Terrorism: not any specific demand or goal, but an all-encompassing Western submission to Muslim rule. This is covered in the first three news links below, and in the first feature article (a longer version of which appeared in our print magazine).

4. "Small-government" conservatives think too small

We continue our countdown of the top stories of the year with #4: the short-lived rebellion of the "small-government conservatives" in Congress. The departure of former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, first from the Republican leadership, then from Congress, followed by the loss of Republican House majority, set off a series of leadership battles in which "small-government conservatives" attempted to unseat the existing Republican establishment.

5. The second fall of Communism

A story that is enormously important for the future of the world, but which is happening slowly, in the background: the collapse of Communism in China, and the loosening of the regime's political control. That is the story covered in the first six items below, which are just a sampling of the extensive coverage we have given to this story over the year.

The flip side of this story, however, is Russia's continued slide back to dictatorship, as Putin's "Stalin Lite" regime goes heavier on the Stalin. That story—which has gained a higher profile recently with the assassination of a Kremlin critic in London...

(The full links are in the TIA Daily emails, but the Winston Smith blog has the raw text.)

See you next year!