I THINK GLENN REYNOLDS is making a little much of the Islamic tendencies of the Beltway Sniper, John Muhammad. I agree that it's silly that CNN is calling Muhammad "John Williams"; the man got his name legally changed, and this sort of PC pretending that he didn't is becoming all too common. But if one reads the note that Muhammad left behind, with its fourth grade level of literacy and its fantastic schemes of a magic ATM card with a ten-million dollar balance, it's fairly clear that this isn't an Al Qaeda activity. Muhammad is simply a violent idiot, and to the extent he subscribes to violent Islamic ideologies that call for the death of infidels, it is because he is the sort of violent idiot for whom such ideologies appeal, rather than because the Islamofascists persuaded him to do it. If Muhammad were white, he would've been drawn to the Timothy McVeigh circles of black-helicopter paranoia and The Turner Diaries; because he was black, it was the idiocy of the African-American flavor--Nation of Islam--that appealed to him.

Another question is how the heck the Army admits such illiterates into their ranks in the first place, but I'm sure someone will have an explanatory comment. I blame Jimmy Carter, history's greatest monster.

AS JULIA Z. POINTED OUT to me, we've been refusing to broadcast Osama tapes and the statements of prominent Muslim terrorists for fear that they might be using coded messages to sleeper cells. So why in hell was Police Chief Moose announcing "You want us to say 'We have the sniper caught like a duck in a noose.'"?

Hooray for Captain Spaulding takes on Doonesbury better than anyone else to date:

Trudeau does bloggers today (and presumably this week) with the original punchline that bloggers have nothing to say (Check out next week's strip about two guys standing next to each other talking on their cell phones).

I don't have much to say, I will grant. Other than, at least I wasn't dopey enough to fall for the Presidential IQ hoax.

THE ROBOT WARBLOG takes on Max Power and Julia Zlotnick. I have to say the attack on Captain Spaulding was uncalled for, though.

THEY'RE ADVERTISING THE new movie "The Truth About Charlie" with Klint's "Diamond" theme from "Snatch" [track 2]. Last time I saw that, the preview for "Being John Malkovich" used "Brazil's" office worker march music [track 1], which didn't appear in the movie itself, though one can see the preview on the DVD. It's apparently not uncommon for previews to swipe music from earlier movies when the released film has not yet finished being scored ("The Royal Tenenbaums" had the music reworked between the New York Film Festival and its commercial release, for example), but it's rarely so noticeable -- perhaps other musical selections aren't so distinctive.

A SITE WITH all the Futurama songs, plus the Fatboy Slim remix of the theme song.

LAST NIGHT, JULIA and I ended up at the last minute at a Christopher Hitchens reading on Orwell. Hitchens ended up not doing any reading, but, rather, had a discussion with the audience for a little over an hour. The proceedings opened with a moment of "silent outrage" for the victims of the Bali bombing. Hitchens, in a rumpled jacket, and in desperate desire to smoke the cigarette he was holding, was utterly charming. A lot of the questions were of the nature of "What would Orwell think about modern phenomenon X," which would permit Hitchens to riff about what he thought.

"Brothers and sisters. Comrades. Can I call you comrades? Good."

The "root causes" of the Bali bombing: "Australia's support for the independence of East Timor."

On globalization and Michael Moore: Hitchens, working off an Orwell quote about the poverty of colonial Burma, noted that free trade worked to make the poor peoples of the world not so poor. So what if Mexico now imports corn and beans, said Hitchens, if they're now exporting computers and cars? It's racist to say that Mexicans should be restricted to corn and that the jobs in Flint, Michigan are "American jobs" rather than just jobs for Mexicans and Filipinos to compete for. "I've never had the desire to dress up as a turtle or a Teamster."

On Islamofascism: Hitchens noted that Taliban Afghanistan was viewed as a model government by the Islamic fundamentalist movement, and wasn't that argument enough against it? "It's not just a question of means, it's a question of ends." Hitchens pointed out that Orwell had noted the relationship between the Catholic Church and the Fascists of his day. (Paraphrasing:) "There's something totalitarian about an all-powerful central figure who needs to be worshipped, who is always watching you, and whom you can never escape, even in death. Even in North Korea, you can get out from under the government with death. This is a sort of Celestial Korea."

On the lack of an Arabic translation of Animal Farm: "Animal Farm" has never been made available in the Islamic world because of the "porcine representations." "Never underestimate the power of a people with dietary restrictions."

I'm not even beginning to do the hour justice. I'm not one for author readings generally, but Hitchens is always entertaining. Surprised not to see any bloggers there, though there was a spitting image of Listen Missy a few seats away from us.

FOR MATT WELCH: A great story about the history of Thunderstix, which apparently originated with Korean baseball in the 1990s, and have made watching the Angels that much more entertaining. The Pac-10 spoilsports have banned them starting next year in college football.

THE CFR REPORT on Saudi funding of terrorism; the Washington Post summary.

WHY ARE PEOPLE standing still for two to three minutes as they're gassing their cars? Don't they understand there's a notch on the nozzle that allows you to fill the tank without personally holding it? I always multitask when I gas my car, what with windshields and headlights that invariably need cleaning in a smoggy city.