PARIS

So it has happened again, and once more we wait for the rationalizations, the excuses, the explanation of the "grievances" that led to the new Paris tragedy.  They're coming, but maybe this time they'll be suppressed by an avalanche of long-missing common sense.

As of this writing, no one has taken responsibility for the Paris attacks.  Some intelligence analysts find that worrying, as the taking of responsibility usually follows the end of an attack.  Does the silence mean there will be more attacks in coming days?  We can't know.   The suspicion, though, surrounds ISIS, which France is fighting in Syria.

The attacks came literally hours after Field Marshal Obama declared that ISIS has been contained.  Yeah, sure.  And the Maginot Line is containing Germany.  And Pearl Harbor is too far from Japan to be bombed.  If the Paris attacks are the work of ISIS, ISIS is expanding, not contracting.  And we in America have a right to ask, "Are we next?"  We know that a small group of ISIS operatives was arrested in the United States just before our July 4th holiday.  Representative Peter King of New York said after the Paris tragedy that, had the arrests not been made, there might have been a similar disaster in New York City.  ISIS will try again, and again.

I could not help but comparing, as I watched the very fine reporting on Paris by both Fox and CNN, the challenge faced by Parisians to the whining of our college students, as they address the crisis of their adolescent stress.  The key phrase on our trendiest campuses is "safe space." No, the phrase doesn't apply to physical safety.  The children want spaces that are safe from dangerous ideas, which means any ideas they don't like.  I guarantee you that the people are Paris are looking for real safe spaces today.  If there is any good that can come out of the attacks in Paris, maybe it will be an understanding of just how childish, selfish, and immature many of America's college students really are.

We await the morning light, and more news from Paris. 

November 13, 2015