Waiting for the other shoe to drop

For anyone who might have been lulled into a false sense of security because the United States hasn't been hit by terrorists again since 9/11, consider these words from retired Vice Admiral John Scott Redd, head of the National Counterterrorism Center, appearing in this week's Newsweek online:

This is a long war. People say, “What is this like?” I say it’s like the cold war in only two respects. Number one, there is a strong ideological content to it. Number two, it is going to be a long war. I’ll be dead before this one is over. We will probably lose a battle or two along the way. We have to prepare for that. Statistically, you can’t bat 1.000 forever, but we haven’t been hit for six years, [which is] no accident.

I will tell you this: We are better prepared today for the war on terror than at any time in our history. We have done an incredible amount of things since 9/11, across the board. Intelligence is better. They are sharing it better. We are taking the terrorists down. We are working with the allies very carefully. We are doing the strategic operational planning, going after every element in the terrorist life cycle. So we have come a long way. But these guys are smart. They are determined. They are patient. So over time we are going to lose a battle or two. We are going to get hit again, you know, but you’ve got to have the stick-to-itiveness or persistence to outlast it.

To paraphrase Dennis Miller, say what you will about George W. Bush, but when it comes to protecting this country under the persistent threat of Islamic mayhem since 9/11, he gets straight A's. And that's saying something.

A Thousand Kisses Deep

I'm spin cycling at the Tarrytown Y today and what should come on my iPod but the positively mesmerizing Leonard Cohen song, "A Thousand Kisses Deep."

And sometimes when the night is slow
The wretched and the meek
We gather up our hearts and go
A thousand kisses deep

As soon as I got home I started searching on the Internet for perhaps a live performance of this song from Mr. Cohen. What I found is something perhaps even better: Here's Leonard Cohen reciting his original poem of the same title, from which he later shaped the lyrics for the song:



And here's Chris Botti, first playing the song's gorgeous melody--cowritten by Sharon Robinson--and then improvising with his band to the haunting minor-key progression. (If you want to hear Cohen sing the song in his own gruff and goose-bump-raising way, pick up his 2001 album, Ten New Songs):

Hurricane Camille is at it again!

It's always a pleasure to read Camille Paglia--she's brash, brainy, provocative and funny as hell.

In her latest Salon column, Hurricane Camille blasts everything from the current presidential race to the war in Iraq to filmmaking now versus the art house (not to be confused with "grindhouse") era. Ultimately I don't agree with everything she says, but her various takes on culture always compel me to reevaluate my own views.

Here's what she has to say about the latest crop of religion bashers making a splash in the media from the elite tiers of the intelligentsia:

Religion as metaphysics or cosmic vision is no longer valued except in the New Age movement, to which I still strongly subscribe, despite its sometimes outlandish excesses. As a professed atheist, I detest the current crop of snide manifestos against religion written by professional cynics, flâneurs and imaginatively crimped and culturally challenged scientists. The narrow mental world they project is very grim indeed -- and fatal to future art.

You can read the whole thing here.