My friend's estranged wife is scheduled to leave Tuesday morning for Mumbai on a two-month work project.  While this surely has no profound effect on the horror inflicted on Mumbai by a group calling itself the Deccan Mujahedin and witnessed by the world on our 24-7 news channels, it personalizes the attacks for a small circle of friends here in the Fox Valley watershed of the Great Lakes Basin.  Particularly unsettling are the reports that the terrorists raiding the Taj and Oberoi Hotels were conscientiously selective of hostages holding British and American passports.

Meanwhile, the news coverage of the coordinated attacks inflames the cynic in me, with its speculations over motivations and identities of the attackers.  While it may be "safe" to presume that the attackers come from India's Muslim community, it is no less irresponsible of the multinational news business to speculate ad nauseum in lieu of any confirmed facts.  We have learned nothing from Oklahoma City, least of all the similarities in temperament between our own homegrown terrorists with those of the all-purpose Islamist variety as both are prone to spectacular outbursts of violent intolerance toward any and all perceived threats to some Traditional Way of Life.