The Friday Furo Questus

Questus Furore - Out From Under His Rock
So Osama sent us a new tape. (At least, they say it's him. I'm dubious - wouldn't you want to be on video, if for no other reason than to show the world you're still alive?) In it, he offers a truce - if we do whatever it is the turbaned freak wants. How generous.

This has set off alarm bells throughout the media; and wild predictions as to what his sudden reemergence means. Prognostications range from we have him cornered to a new Al Qaeda attack is imminent. This is bin Laden's first communication in over a year, and I have no idea. Again, I find it curious that the tape is merely audio - no video. Given how obliging our media has been in showing his little home movies, one would think he would do so again, in order to thumb his nose at the U.S. once more. With just an audio tape - he could well be dead, and we are just listening to "Osama's Greatest Wahabi Hits" or an unusually talented jihadist parrot. Some believe just that - look at the end of the second paragraph of this article.

So what should we make of it? The cursed truth of it is, it is too early to say. We should be prepared for an attack - a free society will always be at risk - but we should not live in constant dread of one, either. Because all you can reasonably do is make intelligent preparations, take a half-hour to think about what to do if you should ever find yourself in the midst of an attack, and then go on living. A bit of the "Blitz" attitude - be ready, and get on with life. Disruption and fear and shock and dissolution are the terrorists' goal - so meet it with courage, resolution, and hope.

Random Fury - What War?
I continue to be amazed at the ability of so many of us to refuse to accept that there are people in this world that hate us enough to kill us. This was reinforced by the statement of Mary Beth Carroll, mother of Jill Carroll, a kidnapped American freelance reporter whose captors threaten to kill her if U.S. authorities didn't release all Iraqi women in military custody by Friday night.

"They've picked the wrong person. If they're looking for someone who is an enemy of Iraq, Jill is just the opposite," the journalist's mother told CNN's "American Morning."

These terrorists don't care. All they see is a legitimate target.

These people want to kill us. They have repeatedly said so. Why do we seem to have so much trouble believing them?

Random Fury - Persian Perturbation
Is anyone besides me thinking Iran
(a) is more than a little scary and
(b) thinking this whole situation is looking like Iraq all over again?

Except for one thing. We have months, not years, before the mad mullahs get nukes.

Faster, please.

Also: "The Case for Invading Iran." And the contingency plans to strike Iran already exist.

Recommended Reading
VDH, "Making Sense of Nonsense."

Frank Gaffney writes on energy security.

Rich Lowry, "Saboteurs of the Status Quo."

Belmont Club, "The Post-Post-Colonial World."

John O'Sullivan, "I'm a Lumberjack and That's Okay." Political turmoil in the Great White North - could the 30-year rule of the Liberal Party be in trouble? Perhaps.

And Dave Barry is watching 24.

Thought of the Week
"Americans are benevolently ignorant about Canada, while Canadians are malevolently well informed about the United States."
J. Bartlett Brebner

Churchill Quote of the Week
"An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last."
Winston Churchill