Tom Clancy was actually interviewed by CNN on 9/11. I remember listening to it on the local radio station, which decided to cut their normal feed and broadcast CNN Radio for the duration of the day. We got all of our news from the radio that day, along with the extra edition of the local paper, because we were at work with no television and the internet was too bogged down to be useful. None of us actually saw what had happened until we got home from work, which made it really surreal.

For some reason the Clancy interview is one of the things that sticks out in my mind when I think of that day. Maybe because I had already read Debt of Honor.

After 9/11 we actually got pretty good at keeping terrorists from getting to the United States, so I don't think attacks like these are a particularly likely occurrence. First you've got to get enough committed people here to carry out the attacks, which means you have to find people that aren't already on the radar of American intelligence, then get them through the Visa process. Once they're here you've got to obtain all the weaponry you'll need, because you're sure as hell not bringing it here in your checked baggage, so now you've got to deal with the American criminal element (not exactly the most trustworthy lot) to get your hands on a cache of firearms and explosives, all while remaining off the radar of law enforcement. It's really not as easy as it sounds when you open those technothrillers....

Even if you pulled it off, I doubt you could duplicate what we saw in Kenya or Mumbai. American law enforcement isn't likely to shrink from the confrontation like some of the Mumbai police did. They're well armed and well trained for these sorts of things. You've also got a non-zero chance of running into armed civilians and private security, depending on your choice of targets. I doubt the average civilian concealed carrier or rent-a-cop could stop a committed assault, but they've got a decent chance at taking one or more bad guys out with them, so that's yet another thing that could go wrong from the perspective of the would be attackers.

I suppose you could worry about domestic terrorists doing the same, because they're already here and would have an easier time arming themselves. Of course, shooting up a shopping mall doesn't seem like their style, and the Government is fairly adept at infiltrating these types of organizations before they can pull off anything serious.

What's wrong with that? Lots of amusing things come up when you Google that. Hell, Google auto completed the search for me, suggesting "recipes" after I had typed in "human meat".

Incidentally, I'm not much of a whiz in the kitchen, but I suspect human flesh would work pretty well in a red sauce or curry. The bigger problem of course would be the cost of obtaining it, followed by the difficulty of obtaining lean cuts, particularly if you reside in the first world....

From TFA: "Gilberto Valle was 25 years old and still living with his father in Queens when, in 2009, he met Kathleen Mangan on OKCupid."

OKC strikes again! Someone met a creeper on OKC who still lived with their parents? Imagine that....

Tom Clancy penned a novel in 1994 that ended with a 767 being flown into the United States Capitol. Seven years before 9/11. Nobody put him in jail, before or after.

The United States was already effectively at war with Germany before the oil embargo against Japan. The US Navy had orders to sink German U-Boats on sight, we were giving weapons away to the British and Soviets (itself a violation of the obligations of a neutral country under international law), and were making plans for the manner in which we would wage open war against Germany once it broke out. Fire was traded between the US Navy and Kriegsmarine months before Pearl Harbor, in fact two American destroyers were torpedoed (one sunk) by U-Boats in October 1941.

The policy of the American Government at the time was to focus on Europe. Nobody in Washington wanted war with Japan, but they also weren't willing to accept a Japanese defeat and conquest of China. The oil embargo was a last ditch effort to bring them to the negotiation table. They opted for war, with a country that had seventeen times their GDP and twice the population . Had the United States not followed the Europe First policy it's quite probable that Japan would have been crushed by late 1943/early 1944. Japan going to war with the United States has to rank as one of the most boneheaded military decisions ever made in the history of the human race. Probably only equaled by Hitler's move to follow them into war against the sleeping giant.

They usually are. That's kind of the problem. This was the best moment ever of The Wire.

The War on Drugs made law enforcement into the enemy for a lot more people than the War on Copyright Infringement. That's really where the Government started to overreach, in modern times, and if you think what they're doing with cyber criminals (real and imagined) is horrible you should Google "civil asset forfeiture" and start reading.

Elderly drivers. 45 mph. Works equally well for busy school zones and the passing lane on the interstate.

Your girlfriend must love you.... ;)

Explain to me the fairness of a female being able to surrender a kid she doesn't want to the State (safe haven law) or give it up for adoption while a male is invariably on the hook for 18 years of child support regardless of the circumstances? Hell, she can literally take the used condom out of the trash, impregnate herself, and you're STILL on the hook.

Uhh, that's exactly what happens. It's called a default judgment. What exactly do you think the court should do if a party fails to appear in a civil case?

Wow, stereotype much? I've been all over the deep south, lived in the not-so-deep south (Ashville, NC) for five years, I've yet to encounter any place besides hunting cabins that lack running water.

Personal responsibility. Some don't believe in it, they think it's the Government's job to use your money and mine to help people who aren't capable of engaging in it.

The GP isn't worth replying too, but here's food for thought for anybody who might be suckered in by his nonsense: The combination of pill and condom has a typical use failure rates of less than 1%, with a perfect use failure rate that's less than 0.1%. You are using condoms if you're sexually active, right? Last time I checked you can't cure AIDS with a visit to the abortion clinic....

Isn't that the whole point of the push for EMRs? And what stops her from seeing the regular doc then getting the script filled at a clinic? Or just paying the $10/mo for it? My insurance company isn't giving me free condoms, and I don't have any get out of jail free cards made available to me if my birth control fails.

Condom breaks and the woman doesn't want a kid with the guy? She can take the morning after pill, get an abortion, or give the child up for adoption. Man doesn't want a child with this woman? Too bad asshole, we're going to confiscate 15% to 25% of your post-FICA earnings for the next 18 years, and there's not a damn thing you can do about it, even if she broke the condom in the first place or lied about being on pills.