It's hard to think about tax policy or cost-of-living calculations for Social Security when death is in the news, when the grim horror of it hangs in the air like the last wisps of afternoon smoke.

The bombs exploded just before the finish line, at mile 26.2 of the Boston Marathon, and everything else seemed to fade away.

"April is the cruelest month," wrote T.S. Eliot, but of course that's not true. Months are a human invention, an arbitrary division of time incapable of emotions or intentions. The next line of Eliot's poem says that April 'breeds lilacs out of the dead ground,' but science tells us that's not true either. Lilacs (Latin, syringa) are native to large parts of the planet from southeastern Europe to central Asia, and are commonly cultivated by people in many countries.

Human beings plant lilacs. And, as trite as it sounds, they do it a lot more often than they plant bombs.

Historians say that live television doesn't bring us together the way it once did. There aren't as many shared cultural moments now that we have pre-recorded entertainment, hundreds of cable channels, and the Internet. A half-century ago our nation shared cultural touchstones like seeing the Beatles or Elvis Presley on the Ed Sullivan show or the watching the conclusion of a long-running TV series like The Fugitive.

Now it seems as if our only common moments are tragic ones, acts of terror like 9/11 or celebrity deaths like Michael Jackson's. Our only moments of national community seem to ring with pain and loss."The dead tree gives no shelter," says T. S. Eliot's poem, "... only shadow."

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Would-be Times Square bomber Faisal Shahzad has admitted his involvement in the failed attempt and is answering questions. Answering questions, I might add, after being Mirandized and without being tortured.

CBS News:

Faisal Shahzad was on board a Dubai-bound flight that was taxiing away from the gate at Kennedy Airport when the plane was stopped and FBI agents and New York Police Department detectives took him into custody late Monday, law enforcement officials said. One official said he claimed to have acted alone.

"Based on what we know so far, it is clear that this was a terrorist plot aimed at murdering Americans in one of the busiest places in our country," Holder said.

Shahzad is being questioned and has provided valuable information to investigators, Holder said.

Also, it looks like the system worked. Sort of, anyway.

U.S. government officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Shahzad made his last-minute flight reservation on the way to the airport and paid for his ticket in cash. The airline flagged the reservation and alerted authorities, reports CBS News national security correspondent Bob Orr.

According to officials, Shahzad was placed on the federal no-fly list after authorities identified him. However, the addition was so recent that his name failed to trigger an automatic alert, an administration official told CBS News.

Yeah, having the plane heading toward the runway when it was stopped is just a little too close for comfort. Perhaps the DHS should consider using Twitter and the hashtag #noflylist for those real time updates, because it appears there's still just a bit too much lag time between identification and notification.

(h/t Alan Colmes)

Another embarrassment for the war of terror.

A federal judge has declared another mistrial against six men accused of plotting to spark an anti-government war by toppling Chicago's Sears Tower and bombing FBI offices.
U.S. District Judge Joan Lenard ordered a mistrial Wednesday when jurors reported they were hopelessly deadlocked after 13 days of deliberation in the case of the so-called "Liberty City Seven." The first trial ended in a mistrial in December because of a hung jury for the same six defendants and the acquittal of a seventh.

The six defendants could have faced up to 70 years in prison if convicted of four conspiracy charges.

Logan posted on the first trial here. Jeralyn's take on the original case too.

Image from Tengrain at Mock, Paper, Scissors

Today is not only the anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima, it is the day six years ago that Bush received the infamous "Bin Laden determined to strike in US" Presidential Daily Bulletin.  Carpetbagger has more, and there's a blogswarm going on as well...

Guardian Unlimited (h/t Gregory):

A recent case suggests that the war on terror has been superseded by the war on embarrassment

A man accused of blowing up an airliner and killing 73 people, who has already admitted to bombing hotels with fatal consequences and who has a conviction for a failed assassination attempt on a head of state, was freed on a technicality in a Texas court this week, and can look forward to a quiet retirement in Florida.

In London a man accused of hacking into the computer system of the Pentagon and Nasa is waiting to see if the House of Lords will hear his appeal against extradition to the US to face a trial in which one prosecutor has already indicated he should "fry". Blowing up an airliner is clearly regarded as less serious than causing major embarrassment to the defence establishment.

I'm a major devotee of Michael Shaw's BAGNewsNotes. I saw this post a couple of weeks ago, but C&Ler JJohnson reminded me of it in the comments last night and I'd like to read your take on it. They say a picture is worth 1,000 words, but the words that come to my mind when I look at this wedding portrait are not fit for print. That's not Photoshopped. Click through the links to see more photos of this couple.

I hope they send a wedding announcement with that photo to George and Dick so that they can look on the result of their pre-emptive invasion and occupation of a country based on lies and obsfuscation and who really is sacrificing for their war profiteering and inept planning. Maybe Pickles can tell us that's just the unfortunate result of the one bombing in Iraq.

The Daily Dish: Take a look at what Obama had to say about Iraq in 2002. Mark says, "and this is the guy the press is trying to tag as too ignorant of foreign affairs to run for President? Try again."

Discourse.net: The US is bombing a city it already militarily occupies. This doesn’t seem to be a tactic well-calculated to win the hearts and minds of the average Baghdad resident.

Mock, Paper, Scissors: Many of the hot-button issues of the day have a common link: The separation of Church and State.

Balkinization: Yoo in Review

Cause for Concern: Just a small example of how ignorance is propagated by the right wing

Eteraz: Tehran, the BBC, and adventures in hyper reality

The AP:

Three U.S. airmen died Sunday in a car bombing in Baghdad — among at least 17 people killed in violence across Iraq as Iraqi troops launched a fresh battle to oust militias and pacify the capital.

Will this report be denied by Malkin and Charles Johnson too?

Associated Press

A new round of car bombings and other violence struck Iraq on Wednesday, with 55 people killed or found dead as the Iraqi government unveiled a plan to assume responsibility for security in Baghdad by early next year.---The scope of the problem was clear Wednesday, from the first bombing at a bus stop during morning rush hour through the announcement at 9 p.m. that the tortured, bullet-ridden bodies of 21 kidnap victims had been found on the streets of the capital.

Harpers.org: The Bush administration is renting embassy property from a known torturer...birds of a feather

The Effing Truth: Reminds us that we get the government we deserve

The Rude Pundit: Jesus disagrees with Michael J. Fox...and so does NBC sh#theel Matt Lauer

Jspot: Tell liars to stop playing politics with Anti-Semitism.

Bring it On! GOP Blowout Sale--Everything Must Go!

DefCon Blog: Dobson's "Get Out the Vote rallies are bombing