Return from vacation

Now, with the news yesterday that put America on orange alert (and New York on heightened alert), we've been forced to return from our vacation earlier than we would have liked.

We've taken a trip not in space, but in time: We had traveled back to Sept. 10 and the days and years before the terrorists attacked us.

During our vacation, American political junkies and politically engaged people in the West fell back into the comforting old habit of imagining that the only things that matter are the things American politicians do.

Everyone on the Left — from soft liberals to Michael Moore — seemed to have decided that the problems faced by the United States were primarily or even solely the fault of George W. Bush.

Back to Reality