Throughout the day, I have had several friends, family members and favored 'net denizens ask me a variant of: "Why have you been approaching the point of being *shrill* about this terror issue in Seattle? I mean, hurray, they caught the bad guys! Besides, we're getting good coverage here in the Northwest and I just don't understand why you think that the limited emphasis the old MSM has on this is really meaningful. What's so upsetting?"

Here's my answer:

1. The events in Seattle are an ideological problem for the left and their cover band - the MSM. See, if terror isn't just 'over there' somewhere (i.e. the terrorists must be 'foreign' terrorists in 'foreign' lands), then some of the enforcement enabling in the Patriot Act is important and necessary for us domestically. The MSM decries potential civil liberty issues - even though there haven't been any - of having such legislation in place. These events tell us that we might actually be forced to confront the fact that our neighbors might have chosen to join the enemy.

2. A further ideological problem: For the MSM, Islamic terrorism is the perversion of the Religion of Peace in Arab Muslim countries. We cannot have instances of the Religion of Death in America, because that is a direct affront to the meme of multiculturalism. If we allowed that such practice were taking place within our own culture - there might be some pressure on the Muslim community in America to condemn what Islamic terrorists do anywhere that they do it. Ever heard of a condemnation of the beheadings in Iraq by American Muslim clerics? How would the bastions of moral relativism manage to trade with a 'poor choice of religious practice'? These events in Seattle are colored with this hue.

3. Incredible foresight is evident in the anti-terror task force's takedown of these cells. What they did was at least analogous to what an early discovery and a raid on the inner sanctums of Harris and Klebold would have been. Hindsight is always perfect. What they did at most is incalculable at this time. We can only speculate about the true intent underneath the kinds of conspiracy charges that are the only things that can stick before things blow up. And, instead of lauding the dedication and true heroism of these champions of Homeland Security and the administration's vigilance - on this particular set of events from any public report - we are treated to complete silence.

4. This combination of the reluctance to recognize the possibility of domestic terror, the refusal to face the reality of moral evil, and the outright disdain for those who are fervently working to protect us is a combination that endangers you and me and our families. To paraphrase Hugh Hewitt: "I don't like those ideas because they might kill me."

As in the case of our local news stations, the close proximity to these events have given many of us a clear sense of the evil that is near us - for me, not unlike when I first looked into the crater of Ground Zero in January of 2002.

Let us issue once again the clarion call to continue to vigilantly work toward replacing the failed radical left - MSM world view that has held us in sway for so long with a world view that confronts the real world with the difficult truths we must hold to survive.

In 1972, Francis Schaeffer wrote in the book "How Should We Then Live?":

There is a flow to history and culture. This flow is rooted and has its wellspring in the thoughts of people. People are unique in the inner life of the mind -- what they are in their thought-world determines how they act. This is true of their value systems and it is true of their creativity. It is true of their corporate actions, such as political decisions, and it is true of their personal lives. The results of their thought-world flow through their fingers or from their tongues into the external world. This is true of Michelangelo's chisel, and it is true of a dictator's sword.

I pray that we - we the people - will create - with these tools that provide us with almost instant results from our thought-world through our fingers - a flowing ground swell of vigilance that leads to action (when necessary) that leads to victory - all of which will enable us to leave a legacy of freedom to all who come after us.

Unlike our brave men and women who fight for America's best ideals in Afghanistan and Iraq, for most of us, there is no one to order us into this battle for truth. Let's volunteer.

UPDATE: More terror disruption success in Britain - reported 11/22 by LGF (via Yahoo news). Let's hope this one gets some legs.

UPDATE: Diggers Realm also had a post on this. Command Post as well.