TERRORIST MISSILES AND AIRLINERS: Jim Dunnigan reports:

Some 29 commercial aircraft have been shot down by such missiles. However, the downed aircraft have been small, and most of these tragedies have taken place in Africa. The wars in Africa are the worst on the planet, so violent that most journalists avoid them. For three decades, this has kept the use of portable missiles against civilian aircraft off the front page.

Poor Africa. Meanwhile, James Lileks has some thoughts on the subject, too.

UPDATE: Bruce Rolston says that Dunnigan’s wrong about the numbers of missile attacks in Africa.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Here’s a piece on low-tech threats from Ralph Kinney Bennett that’s worth reading.

YET ANOTHER UPDATE: Here’s more from Mitch Berg.

JOSHUA CLAYBOURN COLLECTS candidates’ statements on the first thing they’d do if elected President.

FRESH BLOGGY GOODNESS, from bloggers you may not have visited before, is collected at this week’s Carnival of the Vanities. Drop by and visit some of the over 70 (!) bloggers represented, and see if you find some you like enough to visit regularly.

A FLASH MOB OF KEVINS ON ARNOLD. And yes, you’ll have to follow the link to see what that means.

MORE ARNOLD LINKS: Jim Bennett writes that the recall may cause politicians to rethink direct democracy:

Initiative, referendum, and recall will probably get more scrutiny than they have before. However, it is also worth re-examining the idea of electing judges, for example. Have they really brought better judges to the bench than the Federal system of lifetime appointment?

For that matter, making direct election of Senators mandatory was sold as a means of making them more responsible to the people, and less beholden to money. In the era of mass media markets and perpetual fundraising, this has been a joke.

Meanwhile Forbes writer RiShawn Biddle examines Schwarzenegger’s business history in the Los Angeles Business Journal.

UPDATE: Call me crazy, but I don’t think the release of this picture of Arnold Schwarzenegger (NOT work-safe — er, well, as always that depends on where you work, I guess, but. . . .) will hurt his reputation any.

THIS ARTICLE from tomorrow’s Christian Science Monitor offers a good survey of nanotechnology issues at the moment.

THANKS A LOT, BBC:

While publicly congratulating themselves over the bust of an international arms dealer in an alleged plot to sell Russian-made surface-to-air missiles, top Justice Department officials are privately fuming over a premature news leak that may have blown a rare opportunity to penetrate Al Qaeda’s arms-buying network, NEWSWEEK has learned. . . .

The bureau’s plan was to quickly flip Lakhani, a British citizen of Indian extraction, and then use him as an undercover informant who could lead agents to real-life Osama bin Laden operatives seeking sophisticated weapons.

But those plans went awry late Tuesday afternoon when the Feds learned that the BBC was about to broadcast a sensational report on Lakhani’s arrest by one of its star correspondents, Tom Mangold. The BBC story, based on an apparent leak from a law-enforcement source, had some key details wrong. For one thing, it falsely claimed that the arms dealer’s attempted sale of a shoulder-fired SA-18 missile and launder was part of a plot by terrorists to shoot down Air Force One—a target that never actually came up in the discussions.

But even so, U.S. law-enforcement sources tell NEWSWEEK, the damage was done. The FBI had to abort its plan to recruit Lakhani as an informant and instead charged him today in federal court in Newark, N.J., with weapons smuggling and with providing material support to terrorists.

Thanks again.

UPDATE: Hmm. This story isn’t exactly inconsistent with the above, but read it, too. (Via Bill Adams.)

MORE COMPLAINTS AGAINST THE BBC — this time, upheld by its own watchdog. The Beeb has a watchdog? Glad it’s finally awake. . . .

FINES FOR HUMAN SHIELDS? Eugene Volokh observes: “I’m not sure how wise this sort of enforcement is, but it’s pretty clearly authorized by law.”

I don’t see anything unwise about it. People like this risk themselves and others, all to make a puerile political point — if not to actually adhere to the nation’s enemies.

UPDATE: Reader Kristopher Stewart emails:

I wonder if Jim McDermott and the other Democrats that snuck over to support Saddam got hit with the same fine.

It would certainly be interesting to find out if there is a double standard for elected officials on the subject.

I’m not sure the same statute applies, but I’m sure that there’s a double standard if it does.

DECLAN MCCULLAGH has an interview with Sherman Austin, who is going to jail for linking to bomb-making instructions. There’s more on the case here. (Via Venkat Balasubramani).

TRENT TELENKO BELIEVES that the move toward Saudi regime change is starting.

UPDATE: The Telegraph seems to agree:

The suspension of British Airways flights to Saudi Arabia yesterday, following “credible intelligence of a serious threat”, is an ominous indication of al-Qa’eda’s undiminished capacity to threaten Western global interests. . . .

The House of Saud itself is implicated in some of these hostile activities, and appears to be in denial about the threat of its own overthrow. Mass arrests and executions of terrorists are only the public face of Saudi policy towards al-Qa’eda; privately, the emphasis has been on appeasement.

Under these circumstances, Britain and America would be wise to prepare for the possibility of regime change in Saudi Arabia.

Indeed.

WELL, THIS MAKES SENSE: E! Online is all over the Schwarzenegger candidacy.

DANIEL DREZNER IS WORRIED about how things are going in Iraq. Given the persistently negative slant of press coverage, and the size and diversity of Iraq, it’s hard to grasp the full picture. But it’s certainly clear that — as I said even before the war — the key will be patience, and the willingness to commit the resources to finish the job. The American people seem to have both. What’s worrisome is Drezner’s suggestion that the Administration doesn’t.

It had better, because if Bush screws this up, he’ll have screwed up his Presidency. The good news is that I’m sure he knows that, and I suspect that everyone else in the White House does, too.

UPDATE: Alan of Petrified Truth has a slightly different concern:

Good point, but my concern is that the Bushies could fall into the same trap as previous administrations, including father Bush — not a lack of patience per se and not naivete, but convincing themselves that the situation can be finessed; trying to be too clever balancing strategy against politics; and then finding themselves, and us, out-maneuvered by events and enemies who are both numerous and implacable.

G.H.W. Bush knew that Saddam was a psychotic despot, but thought he could be managed — when in fact Saddam could only be defeated. We need to press on with the kind of vigor that allowed us to tune out the conventional wisdom and pull the trigger for a change.

Indeed.

JACK BALKIN HAS more on the Franken/Fox suit.

THERE’S MORE ON THE TRANSHUMANISM DEBATE, over at GlennReynolds.com.

BILL HERBERT IDENTIFIES ANOTHER WOLFOWITZ CANARD and notes: “There is a difference between saying that our dealings with Saddam have to be viewed in the context of the September 11 attacks and claiming that he was behind them. Some people still can’t grasp that.” Or don’t want to, because it undercuts the “Bush lied” claim.

JUST GOT A COPY OF VIRGINIA POSTREL’S NEW BOOK, The Substance of Style: How the Rise of Aesthetic Value is Remaking Commerce, Culture, and Consciousness in the mail. It looks quite good, and the cover is certainly more aesthetically pleasing than the cover of the other book that came in the mail: National Security and Military Law in a Nutshell, which is bound in attractive woodland camo.

I’ll blog more on Virginia’s book after I’ve actually, you know, read it. But since it’s by Virginia, it’s a safe bet that it’ll be worth reading.

MORE ON THE DUMBNESS OF FOX NEWS’ suit against Al Franken, via Jeff Jarvis.

Of course, as several people have pointed out, this “dumb” suit has gotten both Fox and Franken a lot of free publicity. Well, that’s the media biz, these days.

TERRORISM, DISEASE, AND WHY LEARNING FASTER IS IMPORTANT: My TechCentralStation column is up.

MORE TROUBLE FOR THE BBC:

Newsnight reporter Susan Watts today denounced the BBC’s “attempts to mould” her stories in what she believed was a misguided strategy to corroborate Andrew Gilligan’s controversial report on the BBC Radio 4 Today programme.

In an extraordinary development at the Hutton inquiry today, Watts revealed she felt compelled to seek separate legal representation because of pressure from her BBC managers to reveal David Kelly as her main source in order to corroborate Gilligan’s story – a move she felt “was misguided and false”. . . .

“I felt under some considerable pressure from the BBC. I also felt the purpose of that was to help corroborate Andrew Gilligan’s allegations, not for any news purposes,” said Watts.

Mr Dingemans then asked Watts whether she thought her Newsnight stories corroborated Gilligan’s allegations, including whether Alastair Campbell had inserted the 45 minute claim into last September’s Iraq dossier.

“No I don’t,” she replied. “I felt there were significant differences between my reports and his reports.”

Remember: it’s the coverup that gets you.

HOWARD VEIT REPORTS that the California recall is turning violent. Somebody should look into this.

UPDATE: Here’s more.

I HAVE SNATCHED THE PEBBLE FROM THE MASTER’S HAND: Just read what Mickey Kaus writes about my post on Arnold and Iraq.

UPDATE: I should note, in light of something Kaus says further down, that I’m not pinning a lot of hope on a Bush “rope-a-dope” strategy of revealing WMD evidence in the fall. Actually, I’ve been quite skeptical of that, but have noted in recent posts that there does seem to be some evidence supporting it. That’s not the same thing.

Kaus quotes an Iraqi saying that there were never any weapons of mass destruction. That can’t be true, as (1) Saddam used ’em; and (2) UN Inspectors saw ’em. So where did they go? Did Saddam secretly get rid of them while pretending to still have them, even to the point of flagrantly obstructing inspectors so as to make it look as if he had something to hide? Hard to believe, but if so it was the mother of all miscalculations!

ANOTHER UPDATE: Read this, too.

READER GREG PIPER NOTES that this sounds “awfully Jayson-Blairish:”

Gilligan’s eccentric working practices are well known at the BBC, which he joined four years ago from the Sunday Telegraph. He was headhunted by Today’s then editor, Rod Liddle, who appears to have cut him a good deal of slack: Marsh said the problems caused by the Iraq dossier story were “in many ways a result of the loose and in some ways distant relationship he’s been allowed to have with Today”.

Hmm. Read the whole thing.

MAUREEN DOWD IS READING BLOGS, but not, alas, learning from them.

UPDATE: Bill Hobbs is running a reader contest, asking people to Dowdify Dowd! Examples:

“Blogs … overrun … the establishment.”

“James Joyce … Now there’s a man with a future in blogging.”

Of course, if it were actually Dowd, the ellipses would be omitted.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Roger Simon says that Dowd is right — the politicians’ blogs she writes about stink. Well, yeah. But sadly, most of Dowd’s criticisms also apply to her own, increasingly stale and formulaic, columns — something that lots of other blogs have been pointing out for quite a while.

YET ANOTHER UPDATE: Daniel Drezner points out:

What’s most significant about this essay is Dowd’s revealed preferences about the world. What matters to her is not whether a phenomenon is important, but whether it’s trendy. In the world of pop culture, this sort of distinction makes a kind of sense. In the world of politics or international relations, it doesn’t.

True.

CRAZY FROM THE HEAT: InstaPundit Paris Correspondent Claire Berlinski emails:

I feel that I should say something insightful about the heat wave, but really, there is just no way to blame Jose Bove for this one. Besides, I just walked out to get a sandwich and nearly perished of heat prostration, so I don’t have the energy. You know those guys at Alcor who pickle human heads in liquid nitrogen? I used to think they were just completely nuts, but now I’m now wondering if I can afford it. If your readers buy a few more of my books, maybe I too can be cryogenically frozen: Berlinski.com. It would be a mitzvah, gentle Instapundit readers. Yesterday it reached — literally, I am not at all exaggerating — 114 degrees in my apartment, which is on the top floor of my building and facing due south. When the Pope called upon the world’s Catholics to pray for rain, I swore that if it worked, I would convert. We had a pathetic excuse for a thunderstorm the other morning, and it is still just as hot, and now humid as well. Do your readers think I’m obliged to convert, or might I get off on a technicality, seeing that the Lord Jesus clearly replied only to the letter but not the spirit of my prayers? This is one for the Cardinals to decide, I suppose. Oh, and in other news, my pet bonsai Toshiro expired, another casualty of the weather. I did everything I could to save him. It was to no avail. He was meant for more temperate climes.

A haiku in loving memory of Toshiro:

Once you were florid
My floor is strewn with your leaves
You were a swell plant.

Perhaps it’s not too late to have Toshiro frozen.