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Drudge headline: THICK BLACK SMOKE OVER LONDON.... DEVELOPING... Fox News reports a giant blaze in an East London building. The TV image shows a huge plume of smoke reminiscent of the WTC on 9/11. The trailer at the bottom of the screen says, "Terrorism not suspected."

How thinking of terrorists as pirates can help win the war on terror INTERNATIONAL LAW LACKS A DEFINITION FOR TERRORISM as a crime. According to Secretary General Kofi Annan, this lack has hampered "the moral authority of the United Nations and its strength in condemning" the scourge. But attempts to provide a definition have failed because of terrorists' strangely hybrid status in the law. They are neither ordinary criminals nor recognized state actors, so there is almost no international or domestic law dealing with them. This gives an out to countries that harbor terrorists and declare them "freedom fighters."...

An eBay spokesman explained Wednesday why the online auction site allowed the sale of a Holy Communion wafer allegedly blessed by the late Pope John Paul II in 1998 at his 20th anniversary Mass. The wafer was offered on Saturday by a seller in Sloan, Iowa, and sold on Monday for $2,000 to a man in Cupertino, Calif. The Diocese of Sioux City let it be known Tuesday that is was offended by the item's listing. Hani Durzy of eBay said the listing "kicked up a minor controversy at eBay," as well. But, he said, it was determined that...

As US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice embarked on her maiden voyage, it was reported that she departed from America armed with a new policy paper on how to implement the Quartet's road map produced by the James Baker Institute for Public Policy at Rice University......One of the things that make the paper significant is that it bears former US secretary of state James Baker's name. Not only did Baker serve under the president's father, he now plays a formal role in mobilizing international support for Iraqi reconstruction efforts. As well, the team that composed the report included senior policy...

Only one day after his victory speech, President Bush spoke of spending his "political capital." This was a phrase that no doubt was bandied about during the victory party the night before, but it wasn't suitable for prime time. It sounded like he was bragging. Where was the humble George Bush? Gone with his convincing victory? Let's hope not. Cockiness can be dangerous. Don't forget Newt Gingrich's flub in late 1994. After the Republicans' stunning sweep of Congress in Nov. '94, Gingrich, heady with glee, blathered on about how women don't belong in the military because it's men who are...

THE disastrous journey that led a waiter at a curry house in Manchester to the United States to hijack a plane for Al-Qaeda began not in a mosque but at a roulette table. “Every night when we closed up at the Sher Khan, we would drive around the casinos,” he said. “One night I thought I would go in with the others to see what it was like.” His decision that rainy Manchester night seven years ago was one that he believes he will always regret. Soon he was gambling almost every night and ran up debts that allowed Al-Qaeda...

Joseph Farah, editor of World Net Daily, is being interviewed by George Norrey on Coast to Coast AM radio. Topic: Were the California fires possibly caused by terrorists?

We all know the term RINO--Republican In Name Only. That would be Arnold Schwarzenegger and, by implication, anyone who votes for him. He's definitely not Ronald Reagan, and yet he's been a Republican since he first voted for Reagan. But you couldn't possibly be familiar with the term SUCKER, because I just coined it. It stands for Short-sighted Uncompromising Conservative Kool-Aid-drinking Elitist Republican. In other words, SUCKERs are the ones who would vote for Tom McClintock even though they know he cannot win this race in this state at this time. There simply isn't enough time for him to grow...

The celebration of a Tridentine-rite Mass by a senior Vatican cardinal in Rome yesterday looks set to mark the start of a clampdown on worldwide liturgical abuses and a return to the use of Latin in the Mass. Cardinal Dario Castrillon Hoyos, the prefect of the Congregation for the Clergy, celebrated Mass in the basilica of St Mary Major using the traditional Latin liturgy, which was the nor m in the wester n Church before the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s. He is the first prelate to use the old rite in Rome for more than 30 years. According...

Why Bush faces terrible choices March 29 2003 We now know the start, but how does this end? The stiff resistance of Iraq's armed forces has already deprived George Bush of the outcome in Iraq that he most wanted and expected - the swift collapse of the Baath regime and the triumphant liberation of a grateful Iraqi nation.But the war is just over a week old. It can still end in many different ways. Here are the three most likely scenarios - and one very unlikely one.RUMSFELD'S REVENGE It is still entirely possible that the US could bring the war...

Today's Featured Analysis SummaryThe outbreak of a previously unknown illness is hitting Asia at a time and in a place that truly hurts. If fears stemming from the outbreak do not subside soon, many Asian economies -- including Singapore, Hong Kong, Thailand and Vietnam -- could sink back into recession. AnalysisFirst the technology bubble burst. Then tourism dropped off following the Sept. 11 attacks. What's more, the soft global economy hurt export markets, energy prices rose and then tourism fell yet again as war broke out in Iraq. Asian economies just couldn't catch a break in the past couple of...

The strongest emotional appeal of the movement to stop a war against Saddam Hussein is the notion that peace should always be given the moral benefit of the doubt over war. War is always "failure," as French president Jacques Chirac has put it. Almost every single religious leader - from the Pope on down - has argued that peace is almost always morally preferable to war; and that this war - whatever its strategic or political justification - is simply unjust. Indeed, many of these authorities have gone right up to the edge of saying that peace, under any circumstances,...

I promised to lay off topic A - Iraq - until the Security Council makes a judgement on the inspectors' report and I shall keep that promise. But I must tell you that throughout the past fortnight I've listened to everybody involved in or looking on to a monotonous din of words, like a tide crashing and receding on a beach - making a great noise and saying the same thing over and over. And this ordeal triggered a nightmare - a day-mare, if you like. Through the ceaseless tide I heard a voice, a very English voice of an...

The Iraq crisis has already pointed up a number of valuable lessons. So far I have identified five: • Lesson I. We have been reminded that France is not to be trusted at any time, on any issue. The British have learned this over 1,000 years of acrimonious history, but it still comes as a shock to see how badly the French can behave, with their unique mixture of shortsighted selfishness, long-term irresponsibility, impudent humbug and sheer malice. Americans are still finding out--the hard way--that loyalty, gratitude, comradeship and respect for treaty obligations are qualities never exhibited by French governments....

Michael Savage just mentioned that a good friend and coworker suffered a brain aneurism a few hours ago and was life-flighted to hospital, where he is now in surgery. He asks how God can allow people like the Beltway sniper and Saddam to continue to flourish, while He strikes down innocents like this young man. Michael asked his audience to pray for his friend. I pray that not only will he recover, but that Michael's faith--and my own--may be sustained.

A while back I wrote a column complaining that many young people do not read newspapers, and seem to be more interested in Britney Spears than the Middle East. I assumed that this column would not offend anybody, because I was just kidding around. Also I figured no young person would actually read it.Unfortunately, the column fell into the hands of Debbie Title, a teacher at Crestview Middle School in Ellisville, Mo., who did something unspeakably vicious: She used my column as a classroom assignment. It is a well known educational fact that if you want young people to hate...

KTVU, the local Fox station broadcast out of Oakland, CA, ran a story last night which claimed that San Francisco mayor Willie Brown has some advice for Gray Davis: Lay off of Bill Simon or you may have to deal with Arnold Schwarzenegger as a write-in candidate. Whether this would involve Bill Simon withdrawing or not was not made clear. However, Schwarzenegger seemed more interested in his current project--collecting one million signatures endorsing Proposition 49, a ballot initiative which would boost state spending on before-and-after school programs for school kids left on their own during non-school hours. The Terminator has...

LOS ANGELES, July 12, 2002 -- The critically acclaimed HBO series DENNIS MILLER LIVE will end its hit nine-year run this August, it was announced today by Chris Albrecht, president, HBO Original Programming. Currently debuting shows Friday nights (11:30 p.m.-midnight live ET; tape-delayed PT), DENNIS MILLER LIVE will have aired 215 shows when it wraps the current season. The show has received five Emmys,® including four for writing, and was the first HBO series to win an Emmy® in any series category, winning in 1996 for Variety, Music or Comedy Series. "HBO will continue its relationship with Dennis, and I...

JOHN SHIRLEY’S GLIMPSES OF THE 21ST CENTURY PART ONE American planes, especially the slower gunships, are damaged or sunk by stinger missiles originally provided by the United States, but Northern Alliance forces backed by American Special Forces troops storm Afghanistan... Thousands of young Pakistani men are killed when they join the Taliban in sympathy. The Northern Alliance overruns Kabul, takes over. Though some moderate Taliban leaders had been promised a place in the new government by the US, the Northern Alliance executes them. A coup by Muslim hardliners takes over Pakistan resulting in removal of all US military presence....

THE conventional wisdom is wrong again. It held that George W. Bush would be guided by the unhappy experience of his father. He had watched his father squander his Persian Gulf War popularity during a recession by refusing to energetically attack domestic problems. Father once inadvertently read a cue card that said, "Message: I care." Son would show that he really does. He would use the political capital gained from the swift and remarkable victory in Afghanistan to press a domestic agenda. The State of the Union address would mark the pivot. We would get the usual laundry list of ...