You may have heard that the Emmy Awards telecast aired last night, and the opening of the program featured a skit depicting what was supposed to be a parody of the show “Lost.” The problem for the network is that the sketch was complete with a plane crash at the beginning and subsequently featuring Conan O’Brien surviving the crash and reaching a desert island. Here’s a video of the skit.

This aired the same day that 49 people died in a plane crash in Kentucky.

Was this just an unfortunate coincidence that was simply overlooked by producers? If we can honestly say that the Emmy producers would have aired the skit had the plane crashed in Los Angeles instead of Kentucky, then we can call it an unfortunate oversight. Sure. And Anna Nicole Smith’s baby will grow up well-adjusted.

Not only that, but had the plane gone down at LAX and been carrying, ::gulp:: — celebrities – not only would the crash skit not have aired, but the Emmys would have been cancelled, Inside Edition would hit the air with wall-to-wall coverage, and Barbara Walters would be on the phone immediately securing a weepy sit-down with Brangelina, who probably wouldn’t have known anybody on the plane, but damn can they get the ratings.

Wondering why the network decided to air the skit isn’t difficult. Frankly, Omaha could have been nuked that morning and the network suits would still have green-lit a parody of “The Day After.”

As far as the shallow glitterati is concerned, if it doesn’t happen in New York or L.A., it doesn’t matter. What will save producers of the show is the converse: If it happens at the Emmys, most of the country doesn’t care.

That aside, Conan O’Brien helped keep the celebs in check. In an attempt to end long-winded acceptance speeches, O’Brien showed the crowd Bob Newhart, who was in an air-tight chamber, and announced that there was only three hours worth of air in there. “If the show goes over three hours, Bob Newhart dies.”

O’Brien also warned that anybody who makes a heavy-handed political comment would be forced to ”make out with Al Gore in a Prius.” There was no heavy-handed political commentary. I think O’Brien’s on to something.

The jokes were funny. Too bad the focus today has to be on the producers’ poor judgment and/or taste in deciding to air the pre-recorded opening segment. In Hollywood, however, they’re probably still trying to figure out what was wrong with that.

Comedian Bill Cosby has been speaking in recent years in mostly minority communities about personal responsibility, the importance of education, and more. This has caused a bit of controversy among some circles. Why?

Give a read to “Cos & Effect” over at WorldNetDaily for more.

**Warning: this blog post contains no “Uranus” or Mickey Mouse’s dog jokes whatsoever, and some sharp, pointy sarcasm – proceed with caution

It is with a heavy heart brought upon by a jaded mood of late that leads me to make one dire speculation, and I’ll just dispense with any setup and go ahead and say it: The International Astronomical Union is in bed financially with the publishers of school textbooks.

There. Whew! Like Pamela Anderson after the replacement of a faulty implant, it sure does feel good to get that off my chest.

By now you’ve probably heard that the scientists at the International Astronomical Union have encroached on unfamiliar territory. No, they didn’t kiss a girl, but rather they got together and decided that something we’ve been taught for 76 years is, in fact, wrong.

From the Chicago Sun Times:

Pluto, a planet since 1930, got the boot because it didn’t meet the new rules, which say a planet not only must orbit the sun and be large enough to assume a nearly round shape, but must ‘’clear the neighborhood around its orbit.'’ That disqualifies Pluto, whose oblong orbit overlaps Neptune’s, downsizing the solar system.

When you think about it, if Pluto falls off the planet list under the new rules, then Michael Moore will have to be added.

Pluto will now be known by almost everybody but me as a “dwarf planet.” Political Correctness obviously hasn’t infiltrated the field of astrophysics, or they’d know that this should be referred to as a “little planet.” What’s next, a “midget sun”? Some sensitivity training is in order for the slide-rulers.

It’s the “new rules” that got me. How often will astronomers be allowed to change the rules? Giving astrophysicists autonomy over the heavens can only spell disaster, not to mention culminate in ensuring that when we colonize space, nobody gets laid.

Why not just assign the new definition to all subsequent discoveries and leave Pluto alone? This is known by the practical and/or people watching somebody being wheeled into the chapel to marry Anna Nicole Smith as getting “grandfathered in.” Why? Because there’s a fortune to be made in “new edition” textbooks.

When I was in my late teens and early 20’s and going to college, each semester would bring with it a “new edition” of every textbook, the prices of which were apparently set by OPEC. I’d flip through the “old” version and the “new” version, and there would be one or two altered paragraphs out of 600 pages.

Seriously, people whine about gas prices, and the textbook people stay under the radar? Rise up, parents! Forget about Billy’s beer bong that you found under his bunk bed in the dorm, the space people have obviously gotten together with the publishing people to pull off the scam of the century!

“Technically Doug, the ‘century’ is only five years old, since the new millen…”

“Shut up, Melvin!”

I’m still recognizing Pluto as a regular planet, and boycotting any “new” textbook. They can have my planet Pluto when they pry it from my cold dead telescope.

Nice try, fellas, but we’re on to you.

There’s a harsh lesson in this day and age: only carry credit cards or travelers checks unless you want to be a drug suspect and have your cash confiscated.

This is one of those cases that you can understand how it all happened, but you’d never expect a court to uphold the action taken by the police:

A federal appeals court ruled yesterday that if a motorist is carrying large sums of money, it is automatically subject to confiscation. In the case entitled, “United States of America v. $124,700 in U.S. Currency,” the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit took that amount of cash away from Emiliano Gomez Gonzolez, a man with a “lack of significant criminal history” neither accused nor convicted of any crime.

On May 28, 2003, a Nebraska state trooper signaled Gonzolez to pull over his rented Ford Taurus on Interstate 80. The trooper intended to issue a speeding ticket, but noticed the Gonzolez’s name was not on the rental contract. The trooper then proceeded to question Gonzolez — who did not speak English well — and search the car. The trooper found a cooler containing $124,700 in cash, which he confiscated. A trained drug sniffing dog barked at the rental car and the cash. For the police, this was all the evidence needed to establish a drug crime that allows the force to keep the seized money.

Having your drug sniffing dog bark at a rental car and assuming the driver is a drug dealer is like assuming the guy who just left Paris Hilton’s bedroom is automatically going to be the father of the baby.

True, over a hundred grand is a lot of cash to be carrying, but if this were Donald Trump, would the police have acted differently? If the answer is “yes” (or “duh”) then we as “regular” Americans have a problem that isn’t being helped by the courts.

Here’s the entire ruling (pdf file) including Judge Lay’s dissent, in which he points out the common-sensicle fact that this was a rental car. Common sense is all too often relegated to the dissenting opinions in courts these days.

Richie Rich: Wanted on suspicion of drug dealing.

Today’s column at WorldNetDaily is addressed to a few fellow Christians who are constantly telling everybody the world is going to end, and soon. Hey, maybe it is, but for over a couple thousand years now, each generation has had a certain level of expectation. With each passing generation, Jesus hasn’t returned, though many Christians were running around ensuring everybody at the time that He was coming any day. Is this good for our religion?

Some claim (as early emails I’m getting prove) that biblical teaching compels us to constantly remind people that Jesus is returning soon. (Not only that, but apparently anybody who disagrees with this fact are indeed Atheists)

The column addresses not the belief and teaching that Jesus will return, but those who continuously point out that He’s coming “now!” Read “The ‘End of Days’ daze” for more.

Al Jazeera, the Nickelodeon of nutcases and the ESPN of choice for the discerning knife, rocket and belt-bomb jihad sportsmen, will soon start broadcasting in the United States to millions of homes.

The Arab news network, best known for their “two-fer Tuesday” back-to-back airings of classic hits from al-Qaeda and any other unhinged virgin-questing crazy with access to video equipment and a FedEx guy, hopes to get started in America by November.

The network has been accused of being biased toward, and propagandizing for, of enemies of the United States — but enough about CNN. Back to Al Jazeera.

Legendary British broadcaster David Frost has signed on with “Al Jazeera International,” most likely as a contingency plan in the event they have a shot at an interview with Osama bin Laden, Ayman al-Zawahri (who, when together, look more like a couple who showed up to take advantage of the new marital laws in Massachusetts than terrorist masterminds), or Mick Jagger and Prince Charles. 

Plenty of people will crow negatively about Al Jazeera’s announcement that they will run in the United States, but like I mentioned previously, it won’t be much different that the mainstream media as it exists in America today. Heck, it could be interesting, though I doubt the international version will run ”Who wants to be a martyr?” and “Anti-American Idol” like they do in the Middle East.

By the way, at least one person thinks this is how Al Jazeera manages to get all that exclusive video:

 

My cousin Mike, who’s in the Air Force and stationed in Japan, tipped me off to this one.

As you know, the Ben & Jerry’s ice cream company are responsible stewards of all-things liberal, and they don’t disappoint in their newest campaign, called “American Pie.” The leather on the Birkenstocks of the corporate world’s answer to Berkeley has been chapped, and they’re not going to take it anymore.

Basically what the “American Pie” awareness campaign is about is this: The United States spends too much money on nuclear proliferation, and not enough on health care and “lifting kids out of poverty.” How do we help our children? Tax cuts to relieve stress on working families? Nope. It turns out the answer is found inside a quart of “Chunky Socialist Monkey.”

This from their website:

America stands first in nuclear defense capabilities and first in nuclear defense expenditures among industrialized countries. And it’s not even close!

But America ranks only…
14th in efforts to lift children out of poverty;
18th in the percentage of children in poverty;
And last (yes, last!) in providing health insurance for all children.

It might make you wonder if something is out-of-whack with the U.S. federal discretionary spending pie. Perhaps some slices are too big, while others are too small?

It’s strange though that America also ranks near, if not at, the top of the list for childhood obesity. We’ll get to that in a second.

I wish I had time for a quick analysis of those numbers, but what it boils down to is this: Ben & Jerry’s rankings (1st in nuclear spending vs. 14th in lifting kids out of poverty) for the United States is like saying, “Dr. Phil ranks 1st in how much he spends on suits, but 210th on hair brush expenditures.”

I’m the first to agree that the government wastes money. That’s a given, but I wish liberals would be as budget-conscious across the board.

Call me kooky, but I consider “nuclear deterrence” to be one whopper of a health-care item. What good is Head Start and “free” prescription drugs to a smoldering pile of ashes formerly known as an American family? It’s that “#1 in defense capability” that enables Ben & Jerry’s to be free to be so completely doofy about the rest of it.

Hell, making stuff that will blow our enemies to kingdome come is one of the only things the government does right, so let’s let ‘em do it and leave the raising of the kids up to the parents.

I’ll tell you what, Ben & Jerry’s, I’ll jump on board with your call for a $13 billion cut in U.S. nuclear spending, provided we cut all other government expenditures an equal percentage and the money is sent back to American families in the form of a tax cut. We’ll do what’s best with it.

Ah, but there’s the rub. We’re stupid, at least Ben & Jerry’s (and every other liberal in the U.S.) thinks so, hence the calls for an increased government nanny role.

The reason so many people can’t afford health care and quality education are because liberal tie-dye brained pinheads like Ben & Jerry’s have infiltrated government, which has culminated in half our paychecks – that would have gone to caring for our kids — instead going to Washington, where it’s subject to an 85% processing fee, and then a sliver of that is sent back to your community for health care and education– oh, and usually to somebody else’s kid.

By the way, speaking of health care, the United States ranks very high in the rate of childhood obesity. This leads to heart disease, diabetes, and many other ailments. Thanks for this is due in no small part to ice cream, without which, to some degree, health care would be just that much more of a moot point. The U.S. ranks second only to New Zealand in ice cream consumption per capita.

As far as the Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream Company and their relationship to the health of children is concerned, the bumper sticker “Save the planet, kill yourself” is apropos advice.

Bonus question:

If obesity is a major killer which is reaching the same level as smoking, how come cigarette companies are “evil” and an ice cream company is recognized as ”socially responsible”?

Ben & Jerry’s: Caring for the health of American youth since 1978.

The woman who caused a ruckus aboard a flight from England to the United States yesterday is described as a peace activist with serious mental problems. Pardon the redundancy.

Fighter jets were scrambled, passengers were nervous, and weird stories spread like wildfire. Oh, and she pulled down her pants and peed in the aisle and freaked everybody out.

“All we are sayyyy-innnng…”

It seems like only yesterday that another peace activist, Nobel Peace Prize winner Betty Williams, said in a speech that she “could kill Bush,” and New Zealand peace activist Christiaan Briggs was arrested on assault charges for punching a man and leaving him in a coma.

And let’s not forget about the Bhuddist monks who got into a brawl at what was describes as a “peace protest” this week in Sri Lanka. Well, if they were protesting peace, mission accomplished!

“Is give peace a chaaaance.”

Want a world filled with even more violence and sickness than it has now? Put peace activists in charge.

Sometimes I think the United States, like Tina Turner after burning Ike’s dinner, simply has it coming. Then common sense gets the better of me and I think that only moronic PC doofuses in the U.S. have it coming. The problem is, those pinheads are standing right next to the rest of us.

Here’s a good one to know going into your travel weekend. The Council on American-Islamic Relations, known as CAIR, recently was treated to a VIT (Very Important Turban) private tour of a U.S. airport security area and received a briefing on what screeners do to catch potential terrorists.

Why was this a bad idea? The list is long, but here’s just one example: In April of last year, Ghassan Elashi, a board member of the Texas chapter of CAIR, was found guilty on terrorism charges. Call me kooky, but I’m guessing he has friends.

What’s next? Is Homeland Security going to start going to bars to conduct seminars on how to fool a police breathalyzer test?

Maybe the ACLU and CAIR is right. We shouldn’t be looking for any potential terrorists within any Muslim organizations. The real terrorist is political correctness. Al Qaeda provides the motive, and PC provides the opportunity.

But wait, it gets better:

The Department of Homeland Security invites CAIR itself to conduct sensitivity training for Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers and supervisors (CBP’s counterparts) in Chicago. The course is taught by local CAIR officials Christina Abraham and Mariyam Hussain. More than 30 ICE staffers have gone through the CAIR awareness program so far.

CAIR – which is bankrolled by the Saudis and the United Arab Emirates, two countries that formally recognized the Taliban – also offers religious and cultural sensitivity training about Islam and Muslims to the military. In June, for example, CAIR trained more than 300 military personnel at the Marine Corps Air Station in Yuma, Ariz.

One question. Wouldn’t this “sensitivity training program,” which I imagine is called “Don’t Mecca mistake you’ll regret,” qualify as “profiling.” How else are screeners supposed to know who to be sensitive towards and/or who to offer a private tour of security facilities?

At any rate, when will the rest of us get our private airport security tour? Never. Come on, that would be stupid.

It’s a good thing our PC didn’t exist during WWII. What are the odds that representatives from the Empire of Japan would have offered thumbs-up approval after their private tour of The Manhattan Project at Los Alamos? “Enrico Fermi and Albert Einstein, please report to the ’sensitivity training room’ immediately.”

If the U.S. sees it’s downfall, it will be not because of terrorism, but because of political correctness.

Meet Klem Kadiddlehopper, new head of the Department of Homeland Security

The ACLU has won a lawsuit against the National Security Agency’s warrantless wiretapping program. A judge called it unconstitutional.

How come the only time it seems that many judges are concerned deeply with the letter of the Constitution is when it’s something that could help anti-Americans kill us?

Here’s the depressing part:

The American Civil Liberties Union filed the lawsuit on behalf of journalists, scholars and lawyers who say the program has made it difficult for them to do their jobs. They believe many of their overseas contacts are likely targets of the program, which involves secretly listening to conversations between people in the U.S. and people in other countries.

Whether or not the warrantless program had the potential to be a grossly unconstitutional invasion of privacy rights aside, if it was helping catch terrorists, I’d hate to think that we could be in greater danger simply because of “journalists, scholars and lawyers.”

Here’s a quick quiz: If we’re attacked again, who will be the first people to climb atop the smoldering ruins, weeping and claiming that Bush didn’t do enough to protect us?

A) You and me.

B) Journalists, scholars, lawyers, and the ACLU.

So, here’s the long and short of this country. If a man is on, say, a California beach in a fairly private spot and is suspected of being on the phone with terrorists overseas, the FBI agents in the parking lot can not tap into his call because that’s an invasion of privacy.

If the man is chatting on the phone in the same place while smoking, then he’s going down and will be prosecuted to the extent of the law.

Hopefully a lot of terrorists smoke cigarettes.

Immediate danger to public health that must be stopped at any cost even in their own homes

Guaranteed the right to privacy

One of the more embraced phrases these days is “useful idiot.” It is used to describe a moron and/or misguided wingnut who helps confirm the position of their opponent via actions and words that work counter to common sense and make the argument of the other side seem more logical.

Delaware Senator Joe Biden is… not one of those people. Biden, you see, is simply a “useless idiot,” which is made less redundant when boiled down to simply “idiot,” which can be further reduced to “liberal politician.”

It would appear, as per unwritten law, that this particular useless idiot is going to run for president. Biden officially announced his intentions to be a future ex-presidential candidate back in March. By the way, if you want the world to know that you want the country run by somebody who’s ready, willing and able to demagogue economics or just about anything else to sell out common sense, and even your job, for political power, you can order your “Biden ‘08? gear here.

Is Biden simply doing what many politicians do, which is saying what he thinks people want to hear despite knowing he’s full of B.S., or is he, in reality, quite stupid? It’s a toss-up at this point.

Biden is now leading a short-bus bandwagon railing against — you guessed it — WalMart. Specifically, WalMart stores in Iowa, site of the nation’s first caucus, where Republicans and Democrats alike will soon converge to brag about who’s the most adept at third-party transfers of wealth and outright theft.

I’ll bet Biden an Indian-run Delaware donut shop that, in coming elections, screwing WalMart is going to be the Democrats version of Newt Gingrich’s ”Contract with America,” except item #1 on this contract seems to be a promise to lose jobs instead of gain them.

Biden headlined a conference called “Wake Up WalMart,” to speak of the low wages, lack of healthcare, yada yada yada, of WalMart, the Lex Luthor to the Democrats Stupor-man.

Notice that the solution for those opposed to WalMart, McDonalds, or what have you, is to never, ever raise their own capital to start their own competing business, winning over their customers and thereby putting these evil corporations away for good. Why? They won’t, and they can’t.

Want McDonalds to sell veggie burgers? Open your own damn restaurant and sell them yourself. WalMart doesn’t pay well enough? Start your own damn store and pay somebody a half mil a year to corral carts. This never happens, because they know they’d go down faster than Paris Hilton in the New York Giants locker room.

Liberals like Biden are only capable of taking, taking, taking. It’s all they know and all they teach. Creating and sustaining is up to somebody else — and both of those things must be done while the Joe Biden’s of the world are latched on like lamprey on a shark.

Biden is politics’ answer to Anna Nicole Smith, minus the Vicodin and plus a worse understanding or caring of economic principles, and he goes a long way in explaining why the United States is struggling to compete in many areas.

That or he knows better and is just being, well, a liberal politician. Either way it culminates in one thing: Useless idiot.

Not long ago, Biden said that he’d “rather be home making love to my wife” than on a campaign trail. Hey, I don’t like to think about it, but it’s a start. By the way, Bill Clinton agreed. Bubba would rather be making love to Biden’s wife than campaigning too.

Sometimes we as “regular people” may feel insignificant because it’s tough to fight back against such a misguided political machine, but there are small ways to battle them. For example, I’m going shopping at WalMart today in honor of Joe Biden.

Biden, Kerry, Dodd, Obama and Nelson were once just a Kennedy away from setting the “most whiffle-headed liberals in one picture” record, which is currently held by a group photo taken at a CNN company picnic.

Consider today. First we heard that a plane heading for Dallas from London was being diverted because a woman on board had matches, Vaseline, a screwdriver and a note referring to al-Qaida. Take away the latter and it sounds as if somebody may have found Tommy Lee’s carry-on.

Now officials are saying none of that happened, and the woman, from Vermont, was suffering from claustrophobia and freaked a little bit. Hey, spend enough time around Howard Dean, and something like that is bound to occur.

But oh how rumors can spread. Let’s keep this in mind the next time there’s a freakout. So many stories get started simply by somebody misunderstanding their police or airport scanner, especially reporters who are pushing deadlines and eyeing a network anchor chair while mumbling, “someday…”

Not today. 

Let me in the cockpit or everybody gets lubed!

Good news for Iranian President Ahmadinejad — that polyp that doctors found during his last colonoscopy turned out be Mike Wallace’s nose. Inoperable, but fortunately benign.

There was an utterly predictable and boring outcome when Mike Wallace of “60 Minutes” interviewed Ahmadinejad, Yakov Smirnoff’s evil twin. As is the case with interviews with most despots, dictators, and political candidates, nothing was learned, much confirmed, and ratings went up.

I say that the Wallace/Ahmadinejad interview was a love-fest not because of anything specific to that particular interview, but rather because it put on display what the mainstream media is all about when it comes to interviews: controlled brown-nosing. Getting an interview with a global figure, whether they’re evil (preferably if they’re evil) or not, is like going to a really cool party — if you don’t spill anything or say the wrong things, you may get invited back. Fingers crossed!

What should have been asked by Wallace? Powerline has posted a few questions that Wallace forgot to ask. All relevant.

Powder-puff media chats with nut cases is a long-standing tradition. In 2003, Dan Rather went to Iraq, where he had hoped to stare evil straight in the face, but to his disappointment, Sean Penn had already left. While there, Rather interviewed Saddam Hussein, pre spider hole.

Some have criticized Rather for the wiffle-ball nature of his chat with Hussein, but we should at least acknowledge the dangers he faced. For example, while heading toward Baghdad for the interview, Rather was nearly killed in a head-on collision with a flock of fleeing “human shields.”

Wallace has blazed a trail to Iran before. Twenty-two years ago, Wallace chatted with Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini. This was, of course, before psychotic mourners treated the Ayatollah’s coffin like a pinata on Cinco de Mayo.

This interview was tougher. When CBS was informed they had been granted the Ahmadinejad interview, they got to Iran and waited nearly a week before being allowed to see him. Iran’s Prez was clearly hoping that the Grim Reaper would tap the 88-year-old Wallace on the shoulder within that time, but it wasn’t to be. Mike Wallace’s turn signal may be stuck in the “on” position, but the car can still move fairly fast.

As it turns out, agreeing to this interview is one of the best things that Ahmadinejad could have done, as he came across like a wildly liberal university Professor of Widget Anthropology, and no doubt won over some friends on the left side of the aisle in the states — if there were any who weren’t already on his side.

Ahmadinejad said that Bush wants to solve everything with bombs, and that the U.S. blindly supports Israel. That sound you hear is Ahmadinejad’s blue-state approval rating surpassing Joe Lieberman, courtesy of Mike Wallace and 60 Minutes.

“If you could be a tree, what kind of tree would you be?”

*******

Unrelated side note: If you missed my profiling column Monday at WorldNetDaily, it’s at The American Spectator today. Check out “Profilers is discourage”.

Katie Couric begins as CBS News anchor on September 5th, and she’s already completed the process of pretending to want to run a newscast by agenda-driven committee. Isn’t that what got them into trouble in the first place?

From the San Francisco Chronicle:

During nearly every stop of her six-city “listening tour” this summer, Katie Couric said viewers told her they wanted the network evening news to be an hour instead of just 30 minutes.

You’d think viewers might want it to be true and unbiased as well, but apparently we’re still more concerned with length instead of girth. Baby steps.

Actually, I’d suggest the following format, should CBS heed the advice of Couric and any viewer who actually cared enough to show up to the gimmicky “listening tour”:

1st half-hour: Couric delivers CBS Evening News

2nd half-Hour: Blogger rebuttal, sponsored by the Video Professor’s new “how to spot a Photoshop” DVD.

If CBS really cared about the truth, they would have started their anchor interview process by talking to bloggers, those ”guys sitting in their living rooms in their pajamas writing.”

The “CBS Evening Blog” could have been a huge, cutting edge hit.

Of all the stories of late, where have the real “scoops” come from? Yep, from bloggers. Who were they scooping? Network news, magazines, and mainstream newspapers. What were they scooping? Lies, bias, and misinformation in network news, magazines, and mainstream newspapers. For any network willing to take the risk, the rewards would be great.

“The CBS Evening Blog” could be an enlightening venture into the future of news dissemination, but the network will hold firm and insist on a person who will secure the line that keeps the Big Media ship firmly in place, not drifting with the current of the times, as ratings continue to sink.

History will show this is why they were called “anchors.”

This morning I was talking to a friend about the arrests of the men with more cell phones than a pack of teenage girls who may have been targeting the Mackinac Bridge, which is about a three hours drive north of where I’m sitting.

The bridge is heavily travelled, especially in the spring and summer months, but the person I was talking to said, “what would they hope to accomplish, other than to ensure that a bunch of us can’t get to and from our fishing holes?”

But a properly timed attack could do more than just get traffic stuck in the upper and lower peninsulas, unable to cross. Each Labor Day, around 60,000 people walk across the bridge. A properly timed explosion could make it a horrific attack that would do more than fling only a few dozen cars hundreds of feet into the water.

By the way, everybody assumes that a bridge attack would be an explosion(s). When you have tens of thousands of people bottlenecked on a 5-mile stretch of bridge, you can probably imagine any number of scenarios.

In addition, if the bridge is ever shut down, financially, tourism in the U.P. is a billion dollar industry.

So, yes, this is all something to take seriously — like everything else involving terrorist plots.

Comic Relief Side note:

This is hilarious. It’s the “Flat Fatima: A revolution in news photography!”