I can’t help myself: On Andrew Sullivan today: first a piece on how blogs are a lazy reporter’s worst nightmare. Followed instantly by a lazy, error-riddled screed in defense of perceived slights against his newfangled hero, Pim Fortuyn:

By the way, Fortuyn’s party is not “anti-immigration.” It fully supports the right of every current immigrant in Holland to stay and be assimilated. All it wants is an end to further immigration in a country the size of Rhode Island with a population of 16 million.

The facts:

Rhode Island: 1,050 square miles, 1 million people

The Netherlands: 16,000 square miles, 16 million people

And “anti-immigration” means: against immigration. How else could you possibly parse that? I’ll admit Mr. Fortuyn was too smart to be openly anti-immigrant, which is an entirely different concept, though I suspect this distinction is lost on his followers and Andrew Sullivan.

Finally, since when is being compelled to assimilate a right? Imagine trying to enforce this “right” on the denizens of New York’s Chinatown, many of whom happily go about their life without a word of English. Had Fortuyn run for elective office here in the US, he would have been laughed off the hustings.