I'm going to Providence, RI, for Labor Day, and plan on eating shellfish. Not a big fan, having seldom eat such things as a child when I was fed by my midwestern parents, I've got an open mind.

I also look forward to spending time at the Hot Club.

I'm reading Marc Sageman's Leaderless Jihad now, at a slow pace. The academic discussion between Sageman and Bruce Hoffman is brought up often in the media, as in the opinion piece by Peter Bergen in this past weekend's Washington Post. And more people than Bergen come to the conclusion that the answer in the real world is somewhere in between the two. That lone radicalized individuals become dangerous when they link up with Al Qaeda Central.