The latest plot to blow up an airplane involves a Nigerian man. So, by analogy with the invasion of Afghanistan, shouldn’t Obama immediately bomb and invade Nigeria? Why not?

But wait. The alleged bomber’s father is "a former minister and well-known banker, recently retiring from his chairman position at First Bank Nigeria". Of course, you know what that means. The father is the guy who sends those emails to you asking that you put 10 million dollars in your bank account and keep a few for yourself when he comes to America to retrieve his money. The Nigerian 419 scam. Yeah, that  guy.

So all this is probably some new variation on the 419 scam. Maybe the old scamster just wants to get rid of his children and puts them on airplanes with firecrackers around their ankles so they’ll get arrested and put away by the CIA or MI5 or somebody. But, if so, the scamster is relying upon incompetent western intelligence agencies. They missed 9/11 entirely and they never saw this latest plot coming at all.

Once again, it’s Al-Qaeda vs. the Keystone Kops. For sure, the Pentagon will want to build more aircraft carriers after this latest intelligence disaster. They still think that if they build enough carriers, one day, high in the mountains of Pakistan or Afghanistan, they’ll just sail over Osama bin Laden and kill him.

Update, December 27, 3:23 PM: So the US spends billions of your dollars on defense and intelligence agencies that are supposed to identify and protect us against terrorist attacks on airplanes. What ends up protecting us? The passengers on the plane who snuff out the explosive, subdue and tie up the bomber. What action by the government aided in stopping this event? None. But of course the reaction of the government is to make the TSA intrusions even more onerous and inconvenient for fliers. A classic instance illustrating that, when a government program fails, the government’s response is to do more of what it was doing that did not work. Happens every time.

Update, January 1, 12:13 PM: Oops; maybe not Nigeria but Yemen. Oh well, Yemen, Nigeria, who cares. The US government has got to be attacking somebody after the underwear bomber, doesn’t it? Peace on earth, Obama-style.