Nothing new

We made it safely to Okinawa and back, and I promise a page of photos is coming soon.

Until then... well, I've been distracted. First it was refusal to accept that our long weekend had ended. Then it was more of the same sad news of American deaths in Iraq, and Iraqis killed in the Fallujah mosque bombing. And then last night - just as I was ready to switch on my iMac - Condi shows up on our dissemination terminal, repeating keywords like "no silver bullet" and "structural problems" and "systemic" and "strategic" and "heaven and earth" and "historical information"... all phrases I'm sure Bush is able to articulate.

The one thing I didn't quite catch is how, with admitted knowledge of al Qaeda cells in the US and that August 6 "historical" 'Bin Laden Determined to Attack Inside the United States" PDB in hand, the administration still felt the domestic situation was peachy enough to let sleeper cells lie. And did they ever define "historical" - i.e. historical from an April 2004 or August 2001 perspective?

But I seem to have lost myself.

My point was supposed to be that I have this mental image from a mid-80's HBO special on Nostradamus that I just can't shake. Tall man in turban strolling arrogantly through a high-tech underground control center, from which he is waging the Third World War. A quick Google search for "nostradamus" and "ww3" gave me nothing but pages about a prediction hoax in which lines were inserted to indicate the 9/11 attacks. But I know this cable show was no hoax, because when I saw it - around age 10 or so - people around Omaha were still worried that SAC would be a primary target if some freedom-hating commie hit the red button. I remember wondering if the Soviets might wear turbans instead of those fuzzy hats to disguise themselves.

But the Google result was consoling. No matter what mood I'm in, and no matter what odd thought strikes me, a Web search will reveal the topic already explored to a degree of insanity that makes me feel normal in comparison. The Chinese got it right ages ago with their 10,000 things.