A recounting of two pivotal battles in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries that repelled Islamist invaders of Europe illuminates today's cultural and religious confrontations.

Upon the victory of the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini led Friday prayers at Tehran University. His sermon would carry the weight of an American State of the Union address. With time, Khomeini and his successor Ali Khamenei designated a substitute prayer leader from amongst the regime hierarchy.

The Transitional National Council (TNC) has pledged to move rapidly to elections, but there are still many outstanding questions about control of the entire country, the ability to manage fractious tribes, how elections would take place, armed citizens, recalcitrant Gadhafi family members. In some ways, getting Gadhafi was simpler than rebuilding the country he terrorized for so long.

In Egypt's revolution, Mubarak's downfall marks not the beginning of the end, but rather the end of the beginning. Decisions made now will reverberate for decades. Speaking on an Arabic satellite channel just days after Mubarak's ouster, Secretary of State Clinton called for "a democratic transition with free and fair elections" while also acknowledging "the end of the road is what matters."

Far from enhancing the Putin regime's legitimacy, the election will diminish it further in the eyes of a significant part of the Russian population.

Everybody who pays attention to these sorts of things knows Muslim societies are almost uniquely immune to the forces that have been driving down fertility rates on every continent for decades. But everybody, it seems, fell asleep before the final act.

Sheikh Anwar al Awlaki is more than just a cleric, as he has made al Qaeda ideology easily accessible to English-speakers on the internet and has inspired others to pursue violent jihad.

Biden's double standard allows him to enjoy a kind of political immunity that only encourages asinine impunity. Biden may not matter much, but his boss does. And that's why it's worth pointing out that Biden isn't simply freelancing out there.