Forget me kissing Friedman's ass. I have a new ass to kiss today. Martin Amis. I don't even care what Martin Amis ever says. I don't care if he is writing a manifesto as to why we should all eat babies. I don't care if he argues that everyone should sacrifice their first-born to Baal. I'll read anything he writes, because he's just so damn good. He really gets going mid-way through this one, when comparing the Axis (of WWII) to the Axis of Evil:

We may notice, in this embarras of the inapposite, that the Axis was an alliance, whereas Iran and Iraq are blood-bespattered enemies, and the zombie nation of North Korea is, in truth, so mortally ashamed of itself that it can hardly bear to show its face. Still, "axis of hatred" it was going to be, until the tide turned towards "axis of evil". "Axis of evil" echoed Reagan's "evil empire". It was more alliterative. It was also, according to President Bush, "more theological".

This is a vital question. Why, in our current delirium of faith and fear, would Bush want things to become more theological rather than less theological? The answer is clear enough, in human terms: to put it crudely, it makes him feel easier about being intellectually null.

Yummy. I won't quote any more, though there's plenty where that came from. Go read it.

POSTSCRIPT:
I wonder how Amis and the Hitch are getting along these days? First the whole rift over Amis' Stalin book, and now they're Dove and Hawk. Forget Bush and Saddam, it's the Amis/Hitchens debate I wanna see!