Clueless liberal intellectuals never fail to astound us with their ignorance. Frenchman Bernard—Henri Levy is famous enough as a philosopher and left wing activist to be known by his initials BHL in chic French intellectual circles, as well as among American Upper West Siders like Katrina vanden Heuvel, editor and publisher of The Nation magazine.

Ignorant pretentious verbiage is the norm on those pages, of course. But usually the lefties keep up with gossip about each other. But The Nation has just published a column (translated from the French) entitled "A Letter to the American Left" by BHL in which the noted member of the  nouveau philosophes lists assorted American outrages and laments:

"Why haven't we heard from more intellectuals like Susan Sontag...?"

Apparently BHL and his editor vanden Heuvel haven't been doing much reading lately. Susan Sontag died in December, 2004. Her obituary made all the big newspapers, from the LA Times to The Guardian.

Someone has got to break the sad news to these two intellectual giants.

Hat tip: Donald Forbes

Thomas Lifson   2 17 06