“Without bridging the intellectual world and the street, the charisma of moral indignation such as that exhibited by Mark Steyn has no staying power. Think about it, when Steyn speaks to the subject on the tele, all of us can’t help but laugh at his completely reasonable take when seen alongside the tragic absurdity of the trials and deadly hiccups of this, our, age of the bully. After staring at the stark reality through his prism, what is left, but to flip the channel, and wonder which community around the world is going to spawn the next Muhammad that will get hot for jihad?”

This quote is not metaphorical: “The street is mine, too. I don’t want to walk away if they’re standing in my path.” Like some US ghetto, those words say, like some Third World slum, that person is physically at risk, simply walking in their own country. Think what that means to a Leftist. Their values and hopes and dreams – their love – will not save them from curses and spit, fists and boots. In the minds of the foe, they are indistinguishable.

Vinocur’s treatment of the story is tentative. He has no clear political line. He cannot take a tone of genteel disdain because after all, he is writing about the European Left. (Do I even need to throw in, ‘If it had been a position paper from the Right …’?)

One thing is clear – nobody edits Herald-Trib stuff before it goes to the Web.