Tell us something we don't know

Another American -- after Daniel Pearl and Nick Berg -- is kidnapped and beheaded by Islamic extremists. Two reactions. First, condemnation by politicians is a thoroughly devalued currency at this stage. What's the point? Surprisingly, it's Colin Powell who manages to sound more cliched and idiotic than his boss on this one:

Mr. Powell added, "If anything, it will cause us — I'm quite confident, it will cause our Saudi colleagues — to redouble our efforts to go after terrorists...

So sometimes we're "redoubling" and other times we're already doing everything we can. If you can't say anything sensible, then don't say anything at all.

And where Colin sees a bright side of redoubled efforts, Andrew Sullivan sees a TV news editor instruction:

Will the networks show these images? They absolutely should.

Has he thought about the moral hazard of terrorists knowing that they can get on the TV news by videotaping their killings?