The LRB, true to form

All you  need to know about what the London Review of Books stands for these days is that shortly after 9/11, it ran a special issue on the subject that set the standard for vile post-9/11 anti-Americanism.  Now the LRB has published a full-scale attack on the brilliant and principled Niall Ferguson, whose offenses, in the eyes of the LRB, are having dared to stand up for the West (and especially the U.S.) and to be honest about Islam. The LRB's attack dog, one Pankaj Mishra, actually has the audacity to begin his screed by comparing Ferguson to the character Tom Buchanan in The Great Gatsby, who, you will recall, was a major asshole and a big fan of a book called The Rise of the Colored Empires.  The implication, of course, is that Ferguson (who is married to Ayaan Hirsi Ali) is a racist. Despicable.