Note to our friends in the United Kingdom: Whom do you think savagely bombed commuters across London on July 7, 2005 -- an American radio talk show host?

That's the impression you get when the U.K. Home Secretary Jacqui Smith bans U.S. radio host Michael Savage from entering the country because he talks tough about Islamic terrorists and other issues.

Many of us on this side of the pond have feared for some time that Western Europe is losing its perspective, ceding freedom to political correctness. Now we're sure of it.

It isn't the Atlantic Ocean that separates us so much as the First Amendment. And thank God for that.

Savage's over-the-top rhetoric certainly isn't our cup of tea -- but we don't suppose that either we or any government should decide that for anyone else.

Nor is Savage advocating terrorism or violence, which some of the other 15 on Smith's banned list have done.

"To link me up with skinheads who are killing people in Russia, to put me in league with Hamas murderers who kill people on buses, is defamation," Savage says.

He may be right. But at the very least, as a matter of conscience and humanity, he should be free to speak.

Smith -- and anyone who blamed the United States for the 9-11 attacks -- is being world-class naïve by claiming that tough talk incites Islamic terror. These savages need no encouragement. They are hell-bent on taking over the world and either converting all infidels to Islam or killing them.

Blaming a U.S. radio host for inciting hatred among those who already hate is akin to ticketing a crime victim for his or her screams.

And about inciting hatred: There simply are some things we should hate, including terror perpetrated on innocent men, women and children.

How ironic is it that the U.K., of all places -- which allowed itself to become a hotbed of Islamic terror-stoking -- is now concerned about a backlash against Islamic terror?

England has given much to the world. We owe our own rule of law to Mother England. And the former empire's lofty ideals, still today, are a major reason the world is as civilized as it is.

But on many things we diverged paths in 1776 -- the main one being an individual's right to speak his mind without fear of repercussion from a tyrannical government.

On that point, we improved immensely on the English model.