"St. Patrick chased the snakes out of Ireland.

The least Bush can do is chase them out of the White House."

So says the always insightful Mark Steyn regarding Gerry Adams not being invited to the White House St. Patrick's Day festivities for the first time in a decade. And more:

For the last 3-1/2 years one of the most persistent streams of correspondence I've had is from British readers sneering, ''Oh-ho. So America's now waging a war on 'terror,' is she? Well, where were the bloody Yanks the last 30 years? Passing round the collection box for IRA donations in the bars of Boston and New York, that's where.''

They have a point.

Indeed they do. Looks like, post 9/11, Americans are getting over the nostalgia for the old sod. Not a moment too soon.

Via Brian Micklethwait, who also has a pithy summary of the McCartney's vs. IRA saga.