I’d say this Jonah column is a home run. If Kevin Drum still needs to be persuaded that Jihadist terrorism is a real and contunuing threat to the U.S., then he is essentially unpersuadable. I would have thought that 9/11 alone was enough. Alas, not. A nuke in a major city maybe? If that’s what it will take to get the Democrats to take the threat seriously, you can’t blame the American people for deciding not to wait.
EMAIL OF THE DAY: “You wrote that David Brudnoy’s ‘final and heartiest laugh’ was that his HIV didn’t kill him. I don’t mean to ruin this lovely thought, but as you know, people with HIV often don’t die as a result of primary HIV infection. They often do, however, die of some illness to which they become vulnerable by virtue of chronic immunosuppression. Brudnoy died of Merkel cell carcinoma, a rare form of cancer that occurs between five and thirty times more frequently among HIV-infected individuals than in the general population (see Engels, EA, et al. (2002), “Merkel cell carcinoma and HIV infection,” Lancet 359:497-8). So I’m afraid it’s not unlikely that HIV did kill him. May he rest in peace.” Go ahead. Ruin my little piece of denial. More feedback on the Letters Page.
The Dish 