North Star Writers Group

So says the headline on the ABC News website's The Blotter blogpage. The story that follows is about British law enforcement and intelligence saying that they expect an Islamic terrorist attack in London over the Christmas and New Years holidays. So much so, in fact, that an American law enforcement official working with them said it would be a miracle if there isn’t one. Presently, British intelligence was tracking no fewer than 18 suspected Al Qaeda suicide bombers. And all it takes is one.

Meanwhile, back here on our side of the Atlantic, the media is preoccupied with Miss USA being a coke-snorting drunken slut who would appear to be pulling Miss Teen USA into her immoral orbit, and the subsequent war of words between Donald Trump and Rosie O'Donnell after Trump didn't strip her of her "title." A more stupid, unimportant and pointless "story" one could not invent. Yet there it was, all over the cable news stations this week, giving them every chance to put pictures and video of two tall, beautiful, buxom blondes on the screen for cheap ratings. (I guess they needed a break from the latest Britney/Lindsay/Paris escapades for some other drunk slut news.) This is what passes for "news" in America? At the same time Al Qaeda continues to wage its never-ending war on civilization and humanity?

If the most egotistical man and the most obnoxious and hateful woman in America today want to kill each other, fine. (Somehow, the phrase "mutually assured destruction" suddenly leaps to mind.) And if someone can bring back the MTV show "Celebrity Deathmatch" so we can watch the comedic claymation ultimate fighting version, so much the better. But when this is the main story on regular newscasts and not reserved for the end-of-broadcast funny story on “E! Entertainment News”, something is seriously wrong with the placement of our priorities.

It would sadly appear that we have fallen back into our pre-9/11, vacation-from-history mentality of the 1990s. Once again, denial reigns supreme, so asleep at the switch are we. Just as it was with the Roman Empire, so long as the bread and circuses continue apace, we continue to be distracted from what is necessary to maintain our nation as we've known it. We have grown soft and pudgy on our success, and like a cocky prizefighter underestimating his next opponent, are due to take a roundhouse right on our increasingly glassy chin and be dropped unceremoniously to the mat.

This is the one negative aspect of President Bush's success in preventing another terrorist attack on American soil (in spite of not doing everything necessary to assure it, like sealing the borders) – our willingness, if not eagerness, to take that success completely for granted. The real miracle is that we've gone more than five years without another vomitus of extremist Islamic evil in spite of being hamstrung by political correctness and a political opposition that's just fine with assisting, aiding and comforting the enemy. A bunch of imams mimic the 9/11 terrorists while boarding an airline flight, and instead of being chucked in the slammer and interrogated until they sing like canaries, we walk on eggshells to prevent lawsuits and apologize for doing what all but the stupidest or most cowardly people would have done. (I suppose I should take heart, though; they still were removed from the flight. So long as we can still do that, all is not lost yet.)

I suppose it's not entirely surprising that we avoid that with which it is difficult to deal. Procrastinating before completing unpleasant tasks is very much a human habit, after all. But the point is that the task must be completed, and it is that knowledge and the commitment and resolve it inspires that gets us past both the procrastination and unpleasantness. Have we forgotten that the task of defending civilization remains to be completed? Have we lost the commitment and the resolve needed to accomplish it? I have to believe that is not yet the case, that while the giant presently sleeps again it will fight to the end once re-awakened.

It's just sad to see that another completely avoidable and needless bloody lesson will first have to be re-learned. And even more so to see what pathetic displays of mindless celebrity drivel are capable of occupying our attention – to the point that we have forgotten the lesson in the first place.

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