In the Danger Zone

Just when you think they are weakening and are becoming irrelevant, they push back harder than ever.  They don't stop.  And while I could be talking about the Tea Party,  I'm actually talking about al-Qaeda.  A possible terror attack that may be planned for sometime this month has caused several U.S. embassies and consulates in the Middle East and North Africa to close for the duration of August and and has led the government to brace for a possible al-Qaeda strike.

That strike could come any time, any day . . .any place . . . in any part of the world.  The chatter intimating a planned attack of major proportions - the kind that could immortalize the calendar shorthand for the date on which it takes place - could possibly be in the Middle East or North Africa, but it could also be anywhere in Europe, or even the U.S.  For all we know, al-Qaeda could strike in Chicago or Kansas City, meaning that the attack could be not in the Mideast but in . . . the Midwest.

By the way, if anyone from NSA is reading this, I've been thinking it over and . . . yes, go ahead and collect phone call records! I don't mind, I never call anyone anyway.

I guess that overseas trip my mother and I had been planning to take as for back as 1999 is never going to happen.  It takes eight hours to fly to London or Rome, but it's increasingly taking almost as long to get to through airport security these days.  It's increasingly not worth the trouble to go to Europe and see the grand cathedrals, tour the majestic castles, take in the scenery of the Alps and the Riviera, or stand in front of Abbey Road Studios.  And, truth be told, we're not safe here in America either.  Pretty soon, al-Qaeda might start strike in places less obvious than big cities, just to prove that everyone in America is a target.  Des Moines, you have been warned. :-( 

I do intend to keep my passport up to date after it expires in four years.  That way I'll have the necessary ID required to vote.

Again, I write more in sorrow than in satire. :-O