Iain, over at Forbes, Elisabeth Eaves has a column today on the journey from Rushdie to Wilders that begins:

Salman Rushdie was our canary in the coal mine: He first felt the effects of suffocating gasses that would start to envelope us all.

I think we’re approaching the point in much of the west where Islam is simply beyond discussion in any meaningful way – de facto at the London School of Economics, de jure in the Netherlands, but, either way, the Muslim lobby groups achieve their objective: to make serious open debate about Islam too costly for anyone who attempts it. Apropos “speech-curtailing” laws, Miss Eaves says:

Here’s a good litmus test for whether a law makes any sense: If the “crime” in question can only be described using the word for an emotion, like “hate” or “phobia,” then we have wandered into thought-police territory.

With that in mind, I was interested to see this pop up at the White House website on Obama Day One:

Expand Hate Crimes Statutes: President Obama and Vice President Biden will strengthen federal hate crimes legislation, expand hate crimes protection by passing the Matthew Shepard Act, and reinvigorate enforcement at the Department of Justice’s Criminal Section.