An interesting ad from the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence.

Quoting from a purported al Qaeda training manual:

In countries like the United States it's perfectly legal for members of the public to own certain types of firearms. If you live in such a country obtain an assault rifle legally, preferably an AK-47 or variations.

One website I like to visit is called As the Apple Turns. Like many other sites, they report news and rumors about Apple Computer, Inc., but they treat the whole thing as a soap opera, and they play it for laughs.

That site was not a place where I expected to find any particularly moving or insightful discussion of the events of September 11, 2001. But that’s what I found there. This piece might have started off as “Jack’s Bad Day,” but it was posted on the site under the title “This Too, Shall Pass?”

I’m really out of touch.

When Arnold Schwarzenegger, speaking at the Republican National Convention, called critics of Bush economic policies “girly men,” I thought: The American people are not going to sit still for this outrageous insult to their intelligence.

I was wrong.

While events in Iraq seemed to be spinning ever more wildly out of control, speaker after speaker assured us that we were safer because George W. Bush took us to war there. I thought: We’re more than 17 months into a war that the Administration said would be a “cakewalk,” and U.S. soldiers are being killed there almost every day. There’s no way the American people will fall for such obvious nonsense.

I was wrong.

When almost every speaker at the Republican National Convention spent more time attacking John Kerry than praising George W. Bush, I thought: Bush doesn’t dare to run on his record, because his record is indefensible. The American people will see right through this.

I was wrong.

When I saw the Convention trying to turn “9/11” into a registered trademark of the Republican National Committee, I thought: The American people will not tolerate this cynical exploitation of a national tragedy for political profit.

I was wrong. Polls show Bush got a big “bounce” from a Convention that should have had people holding their noses.

I am definitely out of touch.