Voice of reason.

David Brooks gets the Dehype VOR award for today--for his summary of the facts of the notorious Dubai port power grab, in the New York Times. I can't link you to his column, because Times op-ed people live behind a subscription wall. But here, thanks to the doctrine of "fair use," is his opening line:

"It's come to my attention that many of the foreign goods we import into our country are made by foreigners who speak foreign languages and are foreign."

Brooks goes on to call this flap what it is: xenophobia. And like a responsible pundit, he presents the facts--which are: nothing to do with national security is compromised by the sale of a British port operations company to a Emirates port operations company, any more than DeutcheTelecom's ownership of T-Mobile infiltrates your cellphone with German agents, or News Corp's ownership of FoxNews undermines homegrown journalism--well, maybe that's a poor example, but you get my drift. But US Homeland Security people remain in charge of port security in the U.S.--which is probably a bigger problem.

In the age of globalization, national purity of business ownership no longer exists, even in China. All shades of American political orientation share responsibility for exploiting 9/11 fear, including our current President and his associates. It's a wonder any of us keep our cool.