I wonder if the next Al-Queda attack will come in two stages. The first will be a feint, a far-fetched plot that probably won’t actually work. If it does, it would be a bonus for them, but the real purpose is to trigger a paranoid security panic like this one.

The *real* attack will use the resulting chaos as cover, and will be against a totally different target.

Once upon a time I believed a man who said we had to go to war because another country was threatening us with weapons of mass destruction. They were never found. It seems probable they never existed. How can I ever trust that source again?

I accept that there are a tiny number of people who want to blow aircraft out of the sky, but the moment one allows them to take control they have won without having to kill themselves.

I am about to drive my car to work. This is a dangerous activity. People die in road accidents every day. Air travel is still safer than driving. Even in terms of environmental damage, gas emissions per passenger mile are better in a modern aircraft than some road vehicles.

The only possible answer to those who seek to dominate by fear is courage. I don’t care if those who are using fear are madmen with exploding shoes/liquid explosive/bolt cutters or politicians who want my liberty to “keep me safe” from the aforementioned. Security clampdowns will only work in the short term. The longer term solution must be to convince people who percieve no good reason to stay alive that suicide bombing is not going to get them direct entry to Paradise.