The streets are deserted, and prudence dictates keeping one hand close to your .45, seeing as how you did notice a couple of locals with rifles ducking out of sight on the ride in. If there's one thing that's kept you alive over these months on the run, it's that you've forgotten your reflexes—which wouldn't have been nearly fast enough.

Starting to look that way now. Since we're being engineered so expertly, the only way to dodge the informational bullets is to bypass the evaluative mechanisms entirely. Let the preconscious mind take a turn at the wheel and you can avoid a lot of accidents.

Wouldn't you say the media machine seems to be struggling to find a focus this week? We've got everything going on overseas, sure, but domestically everything's changing faster than anyone can focus on it. Major themes seem to involve social control, personal danger, and local governments turning increasingly angry. They get that way when the cash runs out.

Not the Usual

The latest suicide bombing in Tel Aviv has an unusual angle to it that's going to have a lot of people thinking hard: Suicide bomber and accomplice 'were British'.

Assuming they got this guy ID'd properly, it's going down as "the UK's first suicide bomber." So far, it's looking like Asif Mohammed Hanif, 21, shown at right, and his pal Omar Khan Sharif, 27, were a couple of Derby boys with a taste for militant politics. Members of a mosque in west London say Hanif attended services every day, and liked to stand outside afterward, "handing out leaflets about the Israel-Palestine situation."

Up to now, we've tended to see the typical Palestian bomber as a home-grown product, usually one with some kind of personal grievance. The question this incident raises, naturally, is whether Islamic fundamentalism of the type that breeds homicidal terrorism is common to mosques in tolerant Western societies.

Most of us have some idea about what goes on inside a church, whether you go to one or not, but what's happening inside the average mosque? Political lectures? Indoctrination? If so, of what type? There really isn't much information about these things available, and ignorance breeds fear, etc. Oh, Sharif got lucky (or unlucky, depending on how you look at it), when his bomb failed to go off. He dumped it and went to ground.

Thinning the Herd

Had to visit this one at the Florida Sun-Sentinel: Two Floridians fall ill after eating puffer fish. They both recovered.

"It is important for people to understand that cooking the fish cannot destroy the toxin," state health secretary Dr. John Agwunobi said.

It's Starting

Saw what may be the first election runup coverage over at ABC. Seems kinda early, but maybe they don't want to get scooped. I liked this quote:

So—does the public support abortion, gun control, homosexual rights, affirmative action? The answer is, it depends on what kind of abortion, gun control, homosexual rights or affirmative action you're talking about.

The Runners

There's a fascinating story at the Wash-Post this morning on the District of Columbia's hidden subculture of "runners," people who dash from police stations to lawyers' offices, delivering on-the-spot news about recent car crashes. But why would lawyers want to know about vehicle accidents?

"I have reviewed your accident report at the police station and it appears to be an excellent case," a deep-voiced woman might say, as she did during calls a few months ago. "I'm wondering if you were interested in being compensated for any injuries you may have sustained."

Meet the Homies

That would be the two-inch-tall Hispanic barrio-culture action figurines invented by David Gonzales, a 43-year-old Mexican-American from Richmond, Calif.

Here's Gata and Ice Block, who have that street-cred thing going on. There's hundreds of these characters, and they're being sold in gumball machines, stores, and online through the official Homies Website.

But like Bart Simpson and the "South Park" crew, the Homies have not been warmly received everywhere. Some say they exploit Mexican-American stereotypes and are a negative example of Latino culture.

We have more bullets chambered up and we'll try to hit the target later today.

11:20:20 AM