About f***in’ time. We got him before the tenth anniversary of 9/11, thank goodness. I really hope there’s a Hell, if only so that evil motherf***er can burn in it. UPDATE: It’s official. Obama just announced it. Operation was authorized last week; Osama was killed in a firefight today. The U.S. soldiers in that firefight must never pay for their… Read more »
Because clearly, actual terrorists, trying to slip through undetected, are routinely going to draw attention to themselves with “arrogant complaining about airport security.” Riiiiight. Why, it’s almost as if this agency of the federal government is trying to use its largely unchecked power of detention, arrest, and general intimidation to harass innocent citizens into silence, lest they dangerously threaten American… Read more »
Thomas Friedman nails it, or so it seems to me, in his analysis of what Andrew Sullivan calls the Middle East’s 1848 — starting with the line “This is really hard stuff, and it’s just the beginning.” When an entire region that has been living outside the biggest global trends of free politics and free markets for half a century… Read more »
Bruce Schneier has a modest proposal: Securing the Washington Monument from terrorism has turned out to be a surprisingly difficult job. The concrete fence around the building protects it from attacking vehicles, but there’s no visually appealing way to house the airport-level security mechanisms the National Park Service has decided are a must for visitors. It is considering several options,… Read more »
Taking a step back from the Outrage Machine & Beltway Noise Generator, Slate‘s John Dickerson commits journalism and confirms what everyone with a functional brain, a modicum of common sense, and a resistance to right-wing partisan blinders instantly, instinctively knew upon reading Obama’s faux-outrage-of-the-day quote about America’s ability to “absorb” a terrorist attack: I asked an administration official familiar with… Read more »
Nine years ago today: I don’t remember too much about Monday, September 10, 2001. But I do know three pertinent details. One, my roommates — big NFL fans — watched “Monday Night Football” that evening, and never changed the channel afterward, so the TV was on ABC when we went to bed for the night. Two, I didn’t go to… Read more »
Bush speechwriter Michael Gerson on the “Ground Zero mosque”: How precisely is our cause served by treating the construction of a non-radical mosque in Lower Manhattan as the functional equivalent of defiling a grave? It assumes a civilizational conflict instead of defusing it. Symbolism is indeed important in the war against terrorism. But a mosque that rejects radicalism is not… Read more »
Auto-tweets are turned off right now, but CNN just sent out a Breaking News Alert staying simply: “New York’s Times Square evacuated.” What now??? UPDATE: “Times Square has been evacuated because of a suspicious package. Watch live: http://on.cnn.com/cnndcl1.” “Suspicious packages” usually turn out to be nothing, but we’ll see. P.S. LOL: “You have to wonder about the folks who are… Read more »
In the wake of the latest asinine debate over whether U.S. citizens arrested on U.S. soil on suspicion of terrorism (conservative police-statists, please stop and re-read that phrase — “on suspicion of” — as in, not convicted, as in not guilty, as in presumed innocent — as many times as necessary until your alleged small-government principles are activated) should be… Read more »