24 held in terror plot

I guess I can't blog today without mentioning the situation in England.

I heard the news from a coworker this morning, and then checked the Beeb to get the details, because the US television news is collectively soiling itself. The coverage of these events is near-hysterical and often contradictory. I caught a report on FOX which claimed that the terrorists had been apprehended sitting on the 'planes with the bombs in their luggage!

I even caught the tail end of a report about how people at some airport (whose name I did not catch) were being searched at security but not before getting on the 'plane. This, claimed the anchor, meant that people could - gasp - buy things on the concourse and take them on the 'plane! It makes a mockery of security!

(Unless one is resonably sure that the shops in the airport aren't selling explosives. I dunno. Maybe American airports have more than the usual duty-frees.)

The US color-coded terror alert chart thingy is up to red for the first time ever.

I trust my countrymen (and women) are taking the developments with our customary calm and unruffledness (is that a word? It is now) and aren't spending the night jumping at shadows.

P.s. is anyone else seeing the strange side here?

Pre-9/11 Al Qaeda were known more for their own-goals than anything else. They used all the down and dirty bomb tricks. Trucks with fertiliser bombs, grenades on alarm clocks, stolen explosives, mining or industrial explosives. They were strictly IED.

Now they're coordinating massive plots involving dozens of individuals and hard-to-detect liquid explosives?

This is some James Bond shit, here. A far cry from one idiot trying to set fire to his shoes.