One lesson from the Christmas bomber...

...is that we can't be perfectly safe all of the time. It's just not possible. Sooner or later, we'll get hit again, maybe even worse than 9/11.

Remember what the IRA said after its failed attempt to assassinate Margaret Thatcher in 1984. "Today we were unlucky, but remember we only have to be lucky once. You will have to be lucky always."

And when the terrorists do strike again, rest assured that Dick Cheney will say "I told you so," as if by acting differently, e. g., torturing, we could have prevented it.