Still, at heart I think it’s right on. My own reasons for supporting Hillary have less to do with her views and more to do with her speaking style and her appearance, which has changed greatly from her ‘92 campaign “frumpy librarian” look.

It’s available at Amazon.

It has its own Wikipedia page, loaded with further references at the end.

And Simon and Schuster has the first chapter posted online. Here’s an except:

Even though we loved her stories, mostly we ignored my grandmother. She herded us around, much as she did the goats that she would tether to our tree, but we were more unruly. Stories and squabbles were our pastimes; I don’t think I even saw a toy till I was eight and we had moved to Saudi Arabia. We pestered each other. Haweya and Mahad ganged up on me, or Haweya and I ganged up on Mahad. But my brother and I never did anything as a team. We hated each other. My grandmother always said this was because I was born just one year after Mahad: I stole Ma’s lap from him.

We had no father, because our father was in prison.

I had no memory of him at all.

Psychologists believe that a person’s political ideology is derived primarily from personality characteristics and not from reason, as people like to believe (the New York Times had an article on that topic on Monday, I think).

That sounds very interesting, Alan G, I’ll have to look for that article. My impression is that this is most likely true. We all like to think that our beliefs are rational but I definitely think we’re oriented toward a particular perspective and philosophy by nature.

I agree with you on reason and faith (or Logos, as Pope Benedict refers to this). I assume that at least as practiced in the country of her birth, Hirsi Ali did not feel that there was an application of reason in the practice of Islam. And of course, that is the challenge that Benedict issued to Islamic leaders last fall: do you or do you not believe that God must adhere to reason since He can’t contradict himself?

Reason features prominently in the field of apologetics, which seeks to make rational arguments for a particular religious idea. I can’t speak for other faiths but this has been part of Christianity for centuries.

Psychologists believe that a person’s political ideology is derived primarily from personality characteristics and not from reason, as people like to believe (the New York Times had an article on that topic on Monday, I think).

Talking about Europe: how is Schroder doing? I heard that Merkel is expected to win…