In Best of the Web:

It seems both fair and accurate to note that there is a confluence of interests between bin Laden and those Americans who seek defeat in Iraq. It is little wonder that this is an embarrassment to the latter. But it would be unfair and inaccurate to suggest that this is anything more than a de facto tactical alliance. The Angry Left wants America to lose in Iraq for its own ideological and partisan purposes, which have little to do with the establishment of a global caliphate.

So what are we to make of bin Laden's striking a pose as a global warmist who hates capitalism? Here's a theory: Slate reports that by one estimate 10% of al Qaeda's "soldiers in the global jihad" are converts to radical Islamism, a religion/ideology that, as Slate puts it, "has become a magnet for some of the world's angriest people."

Blogger Roger L. Simon speculates that "the true author (or scriptwriter) of the tape" is Adam Gadahn, né Pearlman, an American-born "spokesman" for al Qaeda who, as The New Yorker reported earlier this year, had a decidedly countercultural upbringingmdash;raised by hippie parents who converted to Christianity and lived on an isolated farm raising goats. A "shy, bookish" boy who rebelled against his parents' faith, Gadahn immersed himself in the world of satanic "death metal" before converting to Islam.

The bin Laden tape evinces a familiarity with, but a lack of sophistication about, America's political cultur—just what you'd expect from the sort of alienated and immature weirdo Gadahn seems to have been. In particular, it seems not to have occurred to the makers of the tape that hardly any Americans, including bitter foes of the president, would actually want to be associated with al Qaeda. Bin Laden has succeeded here only in embarrassing his putative allies, and perhaps in somewhat diminishing their effectiveness at a crucial political moment for the future of Iraq.

But wait!—Taranto also has some interesting comments on the sticky wicket some of the anti-war crowd is in. If their major commentary on bin Laden's video appears to be that we shouldn't pay any attention to what it says, the question becomes, "why?" Well, it's like reading Mein Kampf in the original, Taranto implies. Or (it occurs to me) actually getting impartial translators to divulge the contents of Palestinian schoolkids' textbooks.

You know: because it's there.

So read the whole thing.

Via Insty, but all he has is a dumb link. I provided "added value." So there.

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. . . on why we fight.

Via Insty.

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On the dangers of "thinking like a terrorist," Hackbarth muses: "Experts are fine, but the experts let us down Sep. 11, 2001."

Yup.

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Iowahawk:

Initially police had specifically asked the public for information relating to doctors driving automobiles, but that initial warning brought angry denunciations from the British Medical Association and the UK Automobile Association.

"This directive unfairly singles out and targets British medical professionals, a great many of whom are loyal and patriotic citizens," complained Dr. Hamish Meldrum, chairman of the BMA. "The fact that some of the people involved in the recent unfortunate events may have been doctors is totally coincidental, just as if they had been accountants, plumbers, or random members of a deranged apocalyptic religious cult."

Sir Trevor Chinn, Chairman of the UKAA, warned that the earlier directive would "spark a backlash against the British motoring community and promote a climate of fear and carophobia."

On Tuesday, new British Prime Minister Gordon Brown met with representatives of the medical and car communities and announced that the government would henceforth prohibit occupational and transportational profiling by public officials. Brown said further government communications would prohibit the use of certain prejudicial words like "doctor," "Vauxhall," "podiatrist," "propane," "Asia," "drive," "ticking noises," "panic," and "the."

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. . . a bad day? Think again.

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Start here.

UPDATE: Okay, it looks like I've got a few readers who like them a Kool-Aid cocktail every now and then. So, one question: if the damage at the Pentagon and the crash site/"crash site" in Pennsylvania weren't caused by planes, then what happened to the two missing planes that day that didn't hit the WTC?

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. . . I've heard in quite a while: get science fiction writers to think like terrorists.

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Annie Jacobsen, has a blog now.

Bookmark it.

And, for a good summary of that now-infamous test run, see Malkin's digest on the OIG report. The conclusion: Jacobsen was just being hysterical.. Because—you know how chicks get.

Okay. Just kidding. They concede that the whole thing might have presented a little bit of a problem, in terms of how Air Marshalls, the FBI, and the OHS have dealt with it. A small problem, mind you.

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Rusty has the scoop on six radical Islamists arrested for charges of incitement.

I know that sometimes law enforcement/intel on both sides of the Atlantic prefers to monitor those it could arrest for "incitement," so they can get to bigger fish, but I hope they cooperate with each other, and remember that combatting terrorism is not like fighting organized crime: the "broken window" principle requires that at some point these people be brought in. Threats against people and property are crimes here, and they should most certainly be crimes in a country that has essentially decided there is no universal right to self-defense.

(As usual, I skimmed the comments section for a moment. Alas, Rusty's comments are still as chock-full of the "all Muslims are terrorists" sentiment as the generally are with the "homosexuals are out to destroy the family" nonsense. And, as usual, I fear that he comes awfully close to endorsing both positions in his posts. But he is a good source of information on Islamic terrorism, and despite his myopia in those arenas, a genuinely nice guy.)

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It's a re-run from 2002, but no less chilling for that.

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Well, the chosen conspirators, of course. Though I think the Masons might have been involved.

Which reminds me: it's almost time to re-read some of my favorite books.

But not this year. Not if I'm going to crank out a book manuscript in 90 days. And, no: not even I can rationalize it by claiming that one of my characters is a Titanic buff, and I need to do this for "character development."

Via Ace.

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It's simply that thinking people disagree on how to micromanage it.

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. . . and yet lose our souls?

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Glenn Reynolds on discussion of political assassination among Democrats:

Now, apparently, it's shifted to "beyond the pale" category. It's not only important to have the right opinions -- it's important to have them at the right time.

That's always been the case. After all, hyper-religiousity was okay when Jimmy Carter occupied the White House. And when Reagan was there, fluency in English was just another sign of stupidity; now it's essential to proving any intelligence.

It's all about timing.

UPDATE: Link fixed. I think.

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Now he's messin' with the crew at Johns Hopkins.

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. . . on how to recognize patriotic terrorists.

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. . . on AQ propoganda regarding the Democratic victory, over at Outside the Beltway.

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. . . on what's wrong with the way the MSM tells stories in wartime. (Hint: we ought to bear in mind that parents and spouses will read stories that name their family members. Names and gory details don't necessarily go together.)

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. . . that Condi didn't move with enough alacrity in the summer of '01. But it's a bit rich for the Democrats to claim that the Bush Administration should have done, in eight months, what the Clinton Administration failed to accomplish in eight years.

Via Glenn.

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Don Surber points out that we know when Clinton is lying, because that's when he wags his finger at whomever he's talking to.

I'm not sure it'll ever be clear which individual gave the order to spare Bin Laden's life during the Clinton Administration. But it's clear that no one thought he/she had the political cover to do it, because no one felt that Clinton would fully back them up if it went awry.

Via Glenn.

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