On the Road

Global Terrorism
2 November 2002

Here's the best lead I've read all year. It was written by April Witt and Justin Blum for The Washington Post last week after the DC Sniper's capture:

"John Allen Muhammad, 41, is a serial loser. He is a failed businessman whose karate school and car-repair business went bust, a twice-divorced father whose ex-wives did not trust him with his children, a man whose unremarkably messy life disintegrated into homelessness and theft.

"He was a mediocre soldier who was once convicted of striking a sergeant in the head, and he was not 'anything special' as a marksman, according to a former platoon leader. But his second wife once described him as a handy gun enthusiast who 'can make a weapon out of anything.'"

All it takes is a loser to bring down the whole village.

Aside from the story of the sniper and his teenage accomplice, the past weeks have seen
- an explosion at a popular Bali nightclub, an incident dubbed "Australia's September 11"
- hostages taken in a Moscow theatre (a failed ploy to stop the war in Chechnya followed by a questionable Russian government response; approximately 100 hostages were killed by the same gas used to subdue the terrorists)
- more troubles in Ireland
- more suicide bombings in Israel and Palestine
- more "revised" financial positions in Corporate America amid astronomically understated losses
- more hard working and willing employees around the world "assassinated" by incompetent managers who continue to serve as nothing more than corporate clusterfucks
- musicians arrested and beaten in parts of Afghanistan where a ban on music is still in effect
- Slobodan Milosevic's genocide and war crimes trial in Den Haag once again delayed because, according to The International Herald Tribune, Milosevic was complaining of "extreme fatigue and exhaustion" at the "end of a week of vigorous cross-examination"
- Saddam Hussein still doing his thing
- links to al Qaeda in Eindhoven and Rotterdam
- a resurgent al Qaeda network The New York Times describes as living off of laptops and local help only 15 kilometers from the American Consulate in Karachi, Pakistan; they're communicating over the Internet and laughing it up over card games
- the Islamic AKP poised to take control of Turkey's government in tomorrow's elections, feeding off a weak Turkish economy; the repercussions could lead to a severe clash of cultures as the secular government is bound by Turkish law to have no religious ties.

Does anybody really buy it when the AKP says it has severed its Islamic militant ties? Is that even possible?

The world is facing an epidemic of morally bankrupt individuals latching on to the thought that killing people will get them what they want. The seeds of that mentality are festering even on the football pitch. Check this out, again from The International Herald Tribune: "UEFA has handed out fines for racist chanting to several clubs, including Dutch clubs PSV Eindhoven and FC Utrecht. Last month, UEFA issued a 10-point plan backed by soccer's world governing body FIFA to tackle racism in the sport."

Can anybody out there say the word "education" with me?

Remember: Mattopia does not harbor terrorists of any kind. When and how will this insanity stop?

Where is Susan Powter when you need her?

Just thinking out loud.

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