I fear it's Doug's sort of "thinking" that will prevail in Washington, just as it has done throughout the year, with such desperately tragic consequences for so many. It seems to be a characteristic of the syndrome that people who think like that will go on thinking like that, no matter how many times real outcomes show them to have been wrong.

Meanwhile on the domestic front, the planet-brains at Homeland Security will not rest easy until all planes into and out of all parts of the US have been grounded for ever. It's getting to the point where the terrorists, if there are still any Out There, don't even need to twitch a muscle to spread panic across the strongest nation on earth.