Life in the Atomic Age

This is a photo I took from New York harbor on September 12th, 2002. I was in New York City for a conference, and was on a boat ride as a part of the conference banquet. It was kind of chilly and rainy, and it was eerie to see the site where the World Trade Center used to be…..

Watching Glenna and Niles at the horse show.

And so it begins.

Was there really a second suicide team, or did Shehzad Tanweer think he was coming back?

Sources familiar with the investigation tell ABC News an additional 12 bombs and four improvised detonators were found in the trunk of a car believed to be rented by suicide bomber Shehzad Tanweer. Police believe the bombers drove the car to Luton, where they boarded trains to London. “I believe that the explosives left in that car were left there for a second strike,” said Bob Ayers, a London-based terrorism consultant with expertise in demolition. “But the Metropolitan Police responded so quickly, they were able to get to the car and take control of the car before the second team could get the explosives and leave.”

Personally, I think the suicide bombers didn’t know about the “suicide” part of the deal. I think their plan was to plant these devices, return to the car, and then plant the rest of the devices around London. Yeah, just my uninformed opinion - but isn’t that what blogs were created for in the first place? Using unsuspecting patsies is certainly a tactic that al Qaeda has used before in Iraq. With pregnant women, no less.

Now there are certainly young men willing to die for the cause. But there must not be enough to get the job done if al Qaeda has to resort to tricks, hancuffing people to steering wheels, and remote detonations of car bombs that the drivers didn’t even know contained explosives.

So, what is it?

This is my home, named Dogwood House, at sunset. The home was built in 1803 by a settler from the Carolinas. It was a small indigo plantation, and obviously survived the Civil war. While close to the Mississippi river, it was far enough away to be safe from Union forces. Plus, it really is a small cottage when compared to some of the true plantation homes near us, so hardly a target when the fighting broke out.

Point, and counterpoint.

From Zakaria’s Newsweek piece:

Nor can foreign policy really explain such rage. The invasion of Iraq clearly has greatly enraged many Muslims, radicalizing some deeply. But can a disagreement over foreign policy really make a Briton like Germaine Lindsay, who had never even visited Iraq, kiss his pregnant wife and child goodbye and go out and blow himself and others up? There is something deeper at work here. Last week Egypt, which sent no troops to Iraq and condemned the invasion, was targeted. Turkey and Indonesia—which are both opponents of the war—have also been attacked. (Besides, the demands keep changing. Osama bin Laden’s primary one was that American troops leave Saudi Arabia, which they have done. Bin Laden seems not to have noticed.)

A few weeks ago, I had dinner with an Canadian attorney who had immigrated from Israel. He decided to let me know his views on the “American occupation”, since I was the only American in attendance at this particular meeting. He regaled me with his views on how the American actions in Iraq have made everyone less, not more, safe. He also wanted my opinion on the elections in Iran, claiming that the people who voted in Iran were every bit as brave for voting as the Iraqis, since they had chosen to ignore the obvious US desire in the region and elect a hard line Islamist to head up the government. The discussion never got off the ground, because we were separated by a group of concerned Canadians who didn’t want to see the evening descend into a heated political debate. I was, however, somewhat taken aback by this gentleman’s comments, although I suppose he was playing the role of gadfly purely for entertainment purposes. Sort of a “hey, let’s gang up on the American” kind of thing. Anyway, a couple of observations.

The thing that amazed me the most, however, is that I had an Israeli arguing for appeasement rather than aggressive prosecution of those responsible for terrorist acts. And before you recite the mantra of the left that there’s no links between Saddam and al Qaeda, at least go read this, and this and, especially, this.

Then, when you’re done, tell me who’s right - Herbert or Zakaria? And I wonder what my Israeli friend thinks about recent events in London? As justification, or refutation, of his position? I suspect I know the answer.

Space shuttle takes off on historic flight - Return to Flight - MSNBC.com

Important for the American psyche? I suppose so. But the space shuttle program is old, outdated, and needs to be replaced with something more economically feasible and functional. Initially, Americans watched the shuttle launches with pride and satisfaction. Now it seems we watch, in breathless anticipation, to see if something terrible happens. It seems that this kind of manned “space flight” should be routine by now, not cost billions of dollars, and be providing us with some kind of valuable service on a monthly (weekly? daily?) basis. Yeah, I know I don’t know what I’m talking about - but didn’t you expect more of the program when the first shuttle launched on April 12th, 1981?

A little test to see if the Postie script can handle resizing an image without breaking the WordPress template. This is a photo of Niles, my wife’s Dutch Warmblood that she rides in dressage competitions. Hopefully, you will see him in thumbnail form, with a link to the full size image.

It would appear that the mobile blogging issue is somewhat under control. I used a WP-plugin called Postie, and a little hack called cronless postie to let me get around my server’s lack of functionality. It took a bit of tweaking (notice the huge number of “test” posts below), but still relatively painless as most of these geeky things go. I’ll post links to the Postie plug-in when I’m working on something other than e-mail.