I've not seen this week a piece which so brazenly sprinkles myths and misinformation into a scaremonger piece.

"It is a sign of the times, he thinks, that the country where he settled 17 years ago is about to say goodbye to Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a Somali-born Dutch politician who has sharply criticised the Muslim tradition in which she was raised. Having got into trouble because she once fibbed to the Dutch immigration authorities, Miss Hirsi Ali is moving to America."

Completely untrue - but it's now reality in the foreign press. The correllation is made that because there was a ruckus on her immigration procedure, she's leaving.

The truth of course is even sadder, which is why I'd say the quoted law professor Ellian about cynism in Europe is partly correct (but is also reported with any form of context). Hirsi Ali has struggled to continue her political careers, but was constantly hindered - lack of security, lack of safe lodging, (ridiculous) opposition of neighbours against the tenancy of Hirsi Ali. The Netherlands, as a country, has discarded her. Note that minister Verdonk, after her spat with Parliament about Hirsi Ali's nationality (still unresolved), is still supported by some 80 percent of the Dutch population. (It makes me howl.)

And that, of course, were just the two first paragraphs.

I need something to calm the heartburn now.