One Hit Wonder

I'll leave the announcement to the incomparable John Cena:

Won't anybody think about the children?

Via NPR,

Based on surveys Barnes collected, the top five worries of parents are, in order:

• Kidnapping

• School snipers

• Terrorists

• Dangerous strangers

• Drugs

Terrorists? Snipers? Really? What the hell is wrong with this country?

But how do children really get hurt or killed?

• Car accidents

• Homicide (usually committed by a person who knows the child, not a stranger)

• Abuse

• Suicide

• Drowning

Car accidents are definitely my biggest fear, so I guess I'm… realistic? That's depressing. 

Hearts and minds

The only bright spot in the cases of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the Nigerian who tried to blow up that Christmas Day flight, and the five men who went to Pakistan to receive terrorist training, was that members of the wannabe-terrorists' families approached authorities because of their children's behavior. As an ever-larger percentage of right-wing commentators demand that Abdulmutallab be water-boarded or worse, it does seem worth asking whether parents will offer their children up to law enforcement if they--the parents--believe their kids will be tortured. | Choitner |

Too broad a brush

Drawing a contrast with the complete lack of similar issues from the left wing of our political spectrum, Josh Marshall says what we've all known for some time:

Let's be honest with ourselves: the American right has a deep-seated problem with political violence. It's deep-seated; it's recurrent and it's real. And it endangers the country. It just makes sense to say something the first time they hit the sauce and not wait for things to get really out of hand.

The problem is, of course, that 99.99 percent of right-wingers are peaceful people. And so talking about this real issue is very, very difficult. Statements of fact turn out to be legitimately offensive to folks on the right who would never, ever participate in or advocate for political violence.

It's key, then, when talking about this to acknowledge that we are talking about crazy people, and that, while we may disagree with the political tenets of the right, they are not crazy.

Just run-of-the-mill rendition

Under executive orders issued by Obama recently, the CIA still has authority to carry out what are known as renditions, secret abductions and transfers of prisoners to countries that cooperate with the United States.

Current and former U.S. intelligence officials said that the rendition program might be poised to play an expanded role going forward because it was the main remaining mechanism -- aside from Predator missile strikes -- for taking suspected terrorists off the street. | LAT |

Frankly, I'm not thrilled about this. But Obama's other executive orders seem to indicate that even these renditioned folks will:

a) Not be tortured

b) Not disappear... their whereabouts will be reported to the Red Cross.

c) Given due process.

So, while other countries might rightly consider rendition of their citizens an act of war, at least they will know when that act of war has occurred, and to whom.

Discuss.

UPDATE: Is it funny or disturbing that so many liberals are rushing to defend "ordinary rendition," in which we merely send our agents into a another country to illegally detain, interrogate, and ultimately imprison individuals because--drumroll please--we are at war.. at war against TERROR?

Discuss.

UPDATE 2: Hillzoy's Q&A doesn't really clear things up. I don't believe Obama needs to sign anything to authorize our continued extradition of criminals. This is something else.

I believe that children are the future... of terrorism!

Here:

Nov. 5 (Bloomberg) -- Al-Qaeda is recruiting British children to carry out a terrorist attack on home soil, the head of the U.K.'s domestic security service said.

"Children" gives the wrong idea, because the youngest age the article mentions is fifteen years old.

But, it reminded me of a story about DR: At one point his mom called the cops, convinced that DR was doing drugs in his room because she found a spoon in there. And, as we all know, spoon use equates with heroin use, even when the spoon is covered in peanut butter.

I shudder to think what kind of interactions kids are going to have with their parents when the parents start suspecting them of being in league with Bin Laden.

This is exactly what I've been saying

NYC's republican mayor.:

"There are lots of threats to you in the world. There's the threat of a heart attack for genetic reasons. You can't sit there and worry about everything. Get a life. You have a much greater danger of being hit by lightning than being struck by a terrorist."

Yep. Don't give up your civil liberties. Don't go invading other countries. Get a life.

via TPM

Home-grown terrorism strikes Austin, TX

First, a little framing: One of the most annoying things about hawkish pundits and bloggers (and Presidents of the United States) in our country is their attempt to elevate terrorists (who are mostly powerless idiots) to Hitler-esque levels of threat. You know what I'm talking about: "The battle against Islamic terrorism is the calling of our generation." That sort of garbage.

The problem is simply that it's so intellectually dishonest that it actually undercuts the real threat of terrorism. If the threat were put in context and treated appropriately, we'd actually do a much better job of fighting terrorism... but probably a worse job of electing crazy warmongers.

not a pipe bomb by Jim Dyer.

Why is it intellectually dishonest? Well, for one thing, every single incident of violenc by muslims that hits the news is held up as evidence of a deep sickness in that religion. Other random acts of violence, such as the Virginia Tech shooting? Just tragedies, without any larger message. We all know that if that crazy gunman had turned out to be a muslim, we would still be enduring another round of fevered bloviating about how Islam is not a religion of peace.

Furthermore, and to get to the actual news of the current post, Christian terrorism is never used as evidence of issues with that religion. Incidents like this:

A 27-year-old man has been arrested on three charges related to a pipe-bomb that was found near an Austin, Texas abortion clinic last week. The Austin Police Department has announced that Paul Ross Evans has been charged with use of weapons of mass destruction, manufacture of explosive material, and violating the federal Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act, the Associated Press reports.

The bomb, which was found last Wednesday, consisted of explosive powder and two pounds of nails packed into an insulated container. Video surveillance cameras showed Evans buying a package of 9-volt batteries, electrical tape, and a copper tube, matching the items used in building the bomb. Also, investigators matched Evans' credit card with the purchase of the insulated container at an Austin Wal-Mart, The Daily Texan reports.

Evans is currently in federal custody without bond. He was previously convicted of breaking into cars and robbing a convenience store and fast-food restaurant with a pellet gun. Evans was paroled in 2005 after serving the first three years of a 15-year sentence.

I don't think this is evidence of a deep problem with Christianity as a religion. It may be that religion of any kind has a slight problem in that it can be too easily hijacked by violent extremists, but clearly I don't think that a few sociopathic freaks should be used to smear an entire population, as the warbloggers routinely do with Islam.

Anyway, now we've got another piple bomb incident here in Austin, that's even more curious. It seems to have been left in an alley, not near any understandable target:

A woman found an explosive device near her home on Guidepost Trail in South Austin (map) about 10 a.m. Monday.

But don't worry...

Austin police are stressing that the device found Monday and the one found last week are completely unrelated.

Yeah, I feel much better.

To close the post on a lighter note, this is from that photo's flickr page:

A band named "this bike is a pipe bomb" makes similar stickers, but some Keystone Kops saw one on a bike and had the bomb squad come destroy it. (I'd love to make "my other bike is a pipe bomb" stickers.)