Fox News reports that Tony Snow will step down as White House press secretary effective Sept. 14.
Battling stage 4 colon cancer, he needs all his strength. Godspeed, Tony.
How are new terrorists being born and bred? Peggy Noonan has some thoughts.
We associate terrorism with a threat from overseas, but since 9/11, terror plots have tended to be planned by homegrown terrorists. These young men have tended to be "unremarkable" local residents who came to look to a radical form of Islam for inspiration and meaning. Terror acts are preceded by a radicalization process in which young men are recruited to jihad.[...] Young recruits are often middle class, and their interest is often sparked by an immediate or protracted crisis--the loss of a job, a change in family circumstances. They do not necessarily come from anything particular lacking in the family, but they have nothing to hold onto until this absolute thing, this fundamentalist belief, and its grievances, comes by. Their rage is tended and encouraged by spiritual and operational leaders who offer a sense of community, of belonging and of approval.
[All] modern young people come from two environments. The first is the immediate family, which is human and therefore by definition imperfect, sometimes to a serious and destructive degree. The other is the broader culture in which we all live, and which includes everything from schools to the neighborhood to the media. It's not a new thing to say but it's still true that the latter, which is more powerful than ever, is wholly devoted to the material. People are money winners or luxury item enjoyers. They just want stuff. It is soulless.
The view we show of life to ourselves, and to whatever lost young men are watching, is not broad and inspiriting. It is limited and dispiriting. It is every man for himself.
We make it too easy for those who want to hate us to hate us. We make ourselves look bad in our media, which helps future jihadists think that they must, by hating us, be good.
Ponder that as you scan the list of what's playing at your local cineplex and on television. It's a riptide of cynical exploitation.
White House press secretary Tony Snow, still on the job despite an ongoing battle with stage 4 colon cancer, was very impressive tonight on Brian Lamb's Q&A program on C-SPAN.
Video should be posted shortly. If you missed the program, check it out soon. It's well worth watching.
I've never seen an airplane do what this F-22 Raptor does. Check it out.
Tip via Galley Slaves.