I just spent a memorable hour (well, almost a full hour) on the telephone with Tony Blankley, in a blogger conference call organized by One Jerusalem. The entire call will be posted on the One Jerusalem website later today, and I heartily recommend listening to the whole thing, as an extremely worthwhile investment of your time.

Tony is promoting the paperback edition of his book The West's Last Chance: Will We Win the Clash of Civilizations? I was so impressed with the sensibility of Tony's approach that I have just ordered the book from Amazon. I can't think of a better use of eleven bucks.

Tony sees a substantial portion of our elites in denial of the seriousness of the threat we face from a war of civilizations, with a backdrop of nuclear arms. Even better, he has a cogent analysis of the origins of this denial, and at least the beginning of a vision for how that denial might end in time. Or not. It is a race whose outcome is nothing less than the survival or end of our civilization.

His analysis is both commonsensical and nuanced, a difficult balance to maintain. In response to questions, he was unfailingly informative and clear, yet avoided the pitfalls of an overly academic approach. Rather than try to summarize what Tony said, I am just advising readers to listen to the conference call when it is posted, and buy the book.

Thomas Lifson  9 26 06