Anti-semitism is the best indicator of incipient barbarism

I don't have much use for most Jews - after all they're overwhelmingly lefty and a lot of the ones who aren't are cogs in the Lootetron 2000 we call Wall Street or even worse in Hollywood (not to mention that a lot of 'em seem to hate my guts without ever meeting me).  But I don't have use for them because of what they do and believe, not because their Momma was a Jew.  After all, a lot of my best friends are Jews.  No, that's a lie, a few are but I really don't know that many, after all, I'm a typical flyover country goy.  Indeed, thank God I'm a Country Goy!

But like most Evangelicals, or in my case post-Evangelicals (or maybe pre-lapsarian Evangelicals, I don't know my posting and lapsing which may be why I'm so post), I have a soft spot for Israel and not because of the non-immanentized eschaton (what part of post don't you get?) but because they seem to be the only decent chaps in a truly shitty neighborhood.  That and the fact that they positively kick ass! Again and again and again - and if you're going to take sides in a fight halfway around the world, why not go with the local Yankees franchise?

That's why I find anti-semitism so illuminating.  Walter Russell Mead by way of Glen Reynolds points out that arab anti-semitism has reached levels that imply a Red level alert for that region's mental health.  And certain academic groups such as the American Studies Association in the US, not being satisfied with being looney left, have now set out to displace the Palestinians as the absolute most deranged group of hepcats in creation.  Which is damned hard to do.

But as Glenn points out, if you need a quick and dirty diagnostic for lunacy:  Iranian Mullahs, Al Quaeda fanatics, Academic Marxists, Pat Buchanan, you could do a lot worse than a simple anti-semite saliva test.  Of course once you diagnose the nutter butters there really is no cure other than putting them down.  Which works for dogs, but not people.  And dogs as a species aren't known (except for the Alsatians, Dobermans, Dachshunds and Shnauzers) for their anti-semitism.

Anyway, scratch a Jew hater and you'll almost always find bat shit crazy underneath.