THE TERRORISTS ARE COMING! THE TERRORISTS ARE COMING!
(Not)

Are we now seeing the new face of terrorism? Fox news is reporing that 9 people were killed aboard the commuter train this morning.

--Randy Townley, blog post cited approvingly by anti-immigration zealot and internment advocate Michelle Malkin

"This whole incident was started by a deranged individual that was suicidal," [police chief Randy] Adams told a news conference at the scene of mangled railcars in the suburb north of downtown Los Angeles. "I think his intent at that time was to take his own life but changed his mind prior to the train actually striking this vehicle."

The man, identified as Juan Manuel Alvarez, 26, of Compton, stood by as the train hit the SUV, Adams said. Alvarez had also tried to slash his wrists and stabbed himself, authorities said.

"There is no terrorism or terrorist act involved," Adams said.

--AP

And in other news, a coyote has admitted that he was responsible for the recent dirty-bomb hoax.

"He was going to take the Chinese over (the U.S. border) but they didn't pay him," prosecutor's office spokesman, Moises Uribe, said by telephone from the city of Mexicali.

"He then took revenge by calling 911 in the United States and telling them that the group planned to carry out a terror attack on Boston," he added.

That story also made Malkin wig out -- see this post and this one on her blog. Oh, and when the coyote was arrested, she said the arrest "Still leaves a lot of questions unanswered."

Er, no, Michelle, it doesn't. This was just what rational people thought it was -- a guy on the wrong side of the law trying to get revenge on people who screwed him out of money. The "terrorists" were probably on their way to a grueling 14-hour-a-day stir-frying gig somewhere in the Greater Boston area.

People like Michelle Malkin and Randy Townley want another 9/11 to be just around the corner, embodied in every deranged individual roaming our city streets and every laborer who slips across our borders. Malkin and Townley are like religious apocalyptics -- their whole worldview is in error if we're not really in the Last Days, if Satan isn't everywhere.

*****

(Again, let me add a caveat: Yes, we need to check out leads, and yes, our transportation grid is vulnerable to terrorists. That doesn't mean that everyone to whom it's vulnerable is a terrorist.)