PLEASE: Send all your D.C. Sniper conspiracy theories to Jim Henley. He’s handling that portfolio, and doing it very well.

AUSTRALIAN EMBASSY UPDATE: A reader writes:

I’ve just returned from signing the book of condolences at the Australian Embassy at 1601 Massachusetts Avenue here in Washington, D.C. and it was good to see multiple floral sympathy displays in the lobby. Good work. Unfortunately there was not a line of people waiting to sign the book.

The Embassy web site expresses gratitude for the expressions of sympathy. They also provide a link for those interested in making contributions to relief efforts.

Take note.

UPDATE: Tim Dunlop notes:

The Australian Ambassador to the US has invited Australians living in the Washington DC area to join him and Mrs Thawley at the Residence (3120 Cleveland Ave NW Washington DC) for a cup of tea or coffee at 11.30 am this Sunday 20th October. A minute’s silence will be observed at 12 noon.

So if you’re an Australian in DC, take note. I used to live quite close to the Australian Embassy, which makes me feel closer to this than I otherwise might.

MORE TROUBLE IN KUWAIT:

A Kuwaiti man with petrol bombs in his car was arrested Thursday near a housing complex in Kuwait where scores of U.S. military officers live, a senior security source said.

Fortunately, he appears to be another not-ready-for-primetime terrorist.

A RELIABLE READER emails that an Indonesian court has ordered the arrest of Abu Bakr Bashir. Via the BBC — no link yet. Stay tuned.

UPDATE: Here’s the story, which says he’s been called in for questioning — perhaps not quite the same as arrested.

PAUL JOHNSON WRITES ON what’s wrong with Europe. Worth reading.

STRATFOR HAS THIS OBSERVATION ABOUT THE D.C. ATTACKS:

The idea that the shooter has some relationship to al Qaeda is not proven by any means, but it is not preposterous either, at least at this point.

The intelligence is that the lives of many people around Washington have been deeply effected by these shootings, and that a subterranean fear now is surfacing, and not entirely irrationally. This points to an interesting phenomenon: So long as it is not demonstrated that al Qaeda is disabled — a difficult thing to demonstrate even if it were true — the American public will, given time and some speculative evidence, construe potentially unrelated criminal actions as being planned attacks by al Qaeda. This gives al Qaeda an interesting and powerful edge in the psychological war it is waging with the United States. Al Qaeda does not have to act to create a sense of terror that transcends the mere lunacy of a serial killer. Over time, this could be a significant tool in its arsenal. . . .

A quiet day, except that if the police do capture or kill the Washington sniper, and he does turn out to be of Middle Eastern origin, the likelihood of an orgy of panic in Washington and the United States is extremely high — and U.S. behavior will become quickly unpredictable at that point.

Hmm. An “orgy of panic?” I’ve been talking to my friends in DC. Some are more scared than others (most typical: it’s ten people out of 2-3 million, so what are the odds?) but it’s hard to see “panic” as the main reaction, except among the excitable media crowd, which has a demonstrated tendency to panic at relatively minor threats to its own safety. And by doing so, the media is doing as much — especially in Stratfor’s analysis — to promote terror as Al Qaeda is.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Several readers have sent me emails along these lines, but this one is the most concise:

Looked at schematically, tactically, the sniper attacks in the areas surrounding Washington, D.C., seem to be intended to draw the attention of law-enforcement away from D.C. itself.

Five will get you ten these guys are Iraqis.

I hope he’s wrong. I fear he may be right. Another reader suggests, for reasons too involved to go into here, that it’s an effort specifically to draw attention away from non-white trucks that might be travelling on I-70. The only encouraging note is that so far the terrorists haven’t shown themselves to be that smart.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Reader John Beckwith writes:

As a DC resident I disagree completely that there will be an orgy of panic.

The DC sniper will either stop or be caught. If caught, he will either be a lone nut or an islamofascist. Either way people will be relieved not panicked.

If the shooter is an islamofascist, anger and determination will be the most predictable reaction. I suspect that there will be pressure on the police to infiltrate and monitor the radical mosques and emigre communities that harbor such terrorists. Maybe Robert Meuller (and the rest of the top FBI people who just dont get it) will be a bit panicked but the rest of us will be glad that the killer has been caught and profiled so that we can root out any others.

BTW, my guess is that the perp is an islamist duo, though I’ll bet they are freelancing rather than acting on orders from above.

We’ll see, won’t we?

ACCORDING TO THE FBI, being shot by a .223 rifle is no big deal. Yeah, I followed the link and it’s really as bad as it sounds. Worse, even.

READER CHRIS FOUNTAIN WRITES: “Five bucks says we won’t see any full page ads or campus demonstrations demanding that the UN send inspectors into North Korea. ‘Duck and Cover.'”

Sure we will — but only if the United States threatens to do something.

N.Z. BEAR has posted a response to Eric S. Raymond’s manifesto.

TALKLEFT is taking a surprisingly favorable line on my FoxNews column about genocide and the right to arms. But there is this quibble: “Our conception of a ‘right’ is an entitlement we choose to exercise, rather than a duty we feel obligated to perform.”

Actually, of course, in the Anglo-American tradition the right to arms has traditionally been conceived as both. It’s a right, in the sense that the state can’t take it away. But it’s also a duty, because the social benefits of an armed citizenry (the “positive externalities” in econospeak) in terms of both crime- and tyranny-prevention are sufficient to justify requiring people to be armed.

UPDATE: Here’s a related post from the Lefty Libertarian.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Here’s a list of quotes from Gandhi, et al., on arms bearing, from Robin Goodfellow. As far as I know they’re genuine, but there aren’t any links.

AND ANOTHER ONE FROM THE I-TOLD-YOU-SO DEPARTMENT: Brock Yates has a great column on how luxury bus service is killing the airlines on short hauls. The reason? Delays, security hassles, and bad service. No surprise there.

The bus is nice because it lets you relax or work, unlike driving yourself. I can see the appeal, though I tend to find driving myself relaxing, too.

FROM THE I-TOLD-YOU-SO DEPARTMENT: The American Automobile Association has pulled its support for traffic-enforcement cameras after concluding that they’re a scam run for revenue purposes.

Say it ain’t so!

THE BATF HAS MADE LOTS OF ARRESTS for illegal rifles, but none of them is the sniper. Well, that’s encouraging.

VIRGINIA POSTREL has a lot of new stuff up. Go read it. You won’t be sorry.

STEVE DUNLEAVY WRITES that the D.C. shooter is no native. More troublingly, this article argues that what’s going on is terrorist “market research,” with the tactic likely to spread given its success in tying up hundreds of law-enforcement types to no use and engendering widespread panic.

Nobody really knows, of course. But I get the strong impression that the authorities are trying to avoid thinking about terrorism. Or at least talking about terrorism. And it’s troubling to me that you have to read news reports on these incidents (and you do) the way you’d read old Soviet newspapers, focusing on what’s not mentioned.

UPDATE: Caleb Carr writes:

Should the killings be the work of international terrorists, on the other hand, they will fit a textbook pattern that has been on ample display during recent years in every part of the world.

Yep. Which is why it’s so frustrating to see so little attention paid to this possibility.

UPDATE: Here’s another article from the New York Post suggesting that someone, at least, is taking the terrorist angle seriously.

GEITNER SIMMONS WRITES ABOUT EVIL — and concludes that Ellen Goodman is a better writer than Michael Kinsley. No, really.

JAMES MORROW responds to the Iraqi Ambassador’s New York Times op-ed, which he calls a “self-Fisking.”

THE OTHER BELTWAY SHOOTER: The M.O. is somewhat different, but it’s worth remembering.

HENRY COPELAND THINKS I’M WRONG about the advantages of Big Media where actual hard-news reporting is concerned, and he’s got a plan that involves the Blogosphere.

POLITICAL INSIDERS, note Patrick Ruffini’s take on John Zogby. I don’t know enough to have an opinion, but it’s kind of interesting.

JIHAD CAMPS in Indonesia.

IT’S AN NYC/BAGHDAD BLOGBURST. Well, sort of.

IT MAY TAKE ME A WHILE TO WIN MARY ROBINSON OVER: It’s not official until tomorrow, but my FoxNews column is up. It’s on why the right to bear arms should be recognized as an international human right.

FROM THE DEPT. OF ONGOING CULTURAL CHANGE:

Nicole Shounder of Lynnwood is an out and proud, post-operative transsexual lesbian who voted for George W. Bush. The former Air Force sergeant, now a nurse, heads a regional group called Cease Fear. It promotes firearms education and training for gays, lesbians, bisexuals and the transgendered (GLBT). Her story is part of the upcoming documentary, “Guns and Roses,” by Seattle filmmakers Soyon Im and Jhett Bond.

Shounder says, “I’m in sync with Democratic Party values, but their gun-control stance doesn’t work. We stand out as possible targets, and we are not going to let harm come to ourselves or our loved ones.”

Shounder owns a Smith and Wesson .45, a discreet Kel-Tec .32 for formal dress, and a non-lethal Taser. Unlike the heinous sniper terrorizing suburban Washington, D.C., Shounder vows never to use her weapons on another person unless for defense.

Cease Fear is part of a nationwide network of GLBT firearms education and training groups usually called Pink Pistols. Ex-Microsoftie and Puget Sound refugee Joe Huffman assisted in the formation this summer of a Pink Pistols group in the Palouse, straddling the Washington-Idaho border.

Call me crazy, but this documentary sounds a lot more interesting than Michael Moore’s.

SAUDI FUNDING OF AL QAEDA CONTINUES UNABATED.

The Saudi regime is digging its own grave.