Wobbly

Commenting on the "recent unpleasantness," re the the Fake Fifteen, Jonah Goldberg writes:

"Blasphemy itself could not survive religion," G.K. Chesterton observed, "if anyone doubts that, let him try to blaspheme Odin." Similarly, humiliation cannot survive the death of pride. So it was a hopeful sign that the British newspaper The Telegraph editorialized that Britain had been "humiliated" by the Iranians. At least the sting of pride can be felt in that lonely journalistic redoubt.

But looking to the British government itself, pride seems to be sorely lacking. The most outrage I could find from a government official came from Patricia Hewitt, the British Health Secretary, who called the spectacle "deplorable." Alas, she was referring to something else. She was infuriated "that the woman hostage should be shown smoking. This sends completely the wrong message to our young people." Imagine the outrage if those captured marines had been fed trans fats.

The British have not lost all of their steel. The Daily Mail reported this week that police tracked down and nearly arrested an 11-year-old boy for calling a 10-year-old boy "gay" in an e-mail. This was considered a "very serious homophobic crime" requiring the full attention of police. The article explained that this sort of thing happens quite a bit. Last October, the coppers fingerprinted and threw a 14-year-old girl into jail for the crime of racism. Her underlying offense stemmed from the fact that she refused to join a class discussion with some fellow students because they were Asian and didn't speak English.

He wonders if the Brits have gone wobbly.  'Fraid so, guvnor!  About as wobbly as 10 pounds of fresh goat cheese.