Martin Amis' The Age of Horrorism

"Until recently it was being said that what we are confronted with, here, is 'a civil war' within Islam. That's what all this was supposed to be: not a clash of civilisations or anything like that, but a civil war within Islam. Well, the civil war appears to be over. And Islamism won it. The loser, moderate Islam, is always deceptively well-represented on the level of the op-ed page and the public debate; elsewhere, it is supine and inaudible. We are not hearing from moderate Islam. Whereas Islamism, as a mover and shaper of world events, is pretty well all there is.

So, to repeat, we respect Islam - the donor of countless benefits to mankind, and the possessor of a thrilling history. But Islamism? No, we can hardly be asked to respect a creedal wave that calls for our own elimination. More, we regard the Great Leap Backwards as a tragic development in Islam's story, and now in ours. Naturally we respect Islam. But we do not respect Islamism, just as we respect Muhammad and do not respect Muhammad Atta."

Full article here. Best thing I've read this weekend about September 11.

And now for something not terror-related...

"The story, like the dream, as any novelist or playwright will tell you, develops a logic of its own that begins to generate events of its own accord. The author finds himself in the same position as his characters, swept along by events he can no longer quite control. The same thing happens in small children's games of (so-called) make-believe, which change their form with bewildering speed as new possibilities emerge that change the situation, even the nature of the game. 'You be the daddy who's living in the wigwam, and I'll be the lady who comes in to buy things ... No, I know! I'm a princess, and you're a mummy who comes to my birthday party ...' "

Full article here