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The Boston Globe approves of the way Europe handles terror, by bending over and pleading for gentleness:

For the United States, the response to Sept. 11 was to launch a "war on terrorism," one cast in terms of good and evil and marked with somber ceremonies, fought more with armies than with indictments. But for Spain as well as for France, Germany, and Britain, all countries that have suffered a history of terrorist violence, the focus is a "struggle" against a criminal element.

These European countries have expressed a more quiet but collective resolve to work within an international consensus to fight terrorism. In the eyes of many European counterterrorism specialists and officials, the Bush administration's reliance on conventional military means can serve to provoke more terrorism.

No terrorist acts on American soil since 9/11. More terrorism in places that don't fight back.

"When Spain pulled out its troops, it was completely wrong to say the Spanish people had gone soft on terrorism," said Gijs de Vries, the European Union's first counterterrorism chief, a post created in response to the Madrid bombing to help European countries coordinate efforts against terrorism. "They were instead exerting their belief that the war in Iraq was not connected to the war on terrorism, and that in fact it undercut the war on terrorism."

De Vries, of the Netherlands, said confronting terrorism needs to combine conventional military force, police investigations, and a political dimension that is "more than just hearts and minds, but truly analyzing the context and the conditions that create terrorism." He said the United States and Europe had cooperated very effectively in many ways, especially in criminal investigations, but that the United States had unnecessarily alienated many of its allies by relying too heavily on a military response and consistently undervalued the political dimension.

Let's translate what he means by "the political dimension," okay? What he means is GIVING THE TERRORISTS WHAT THEY WANT. Throwing Jews and Israel under the (exploding) bus in the hopes it'll mean the terrorists- er, "militants"- will just leave everyone else alone. Negotiating treaties so that the leaders can emerge from their planes, walk onto the tarmac waving a piece of paper and announcing that it means "peace in our time."

Tried it once, didn't work.

The three leaders (Chirac, Schroeder, and Spain's Zapatero) agreed to share police databases and vowed closer cooperation in the continent's fight against terrorism. They also agreed to pursue a united approach to address the anger and despair among Muslims in the Middle East and those who come as immigrants to Europe, and who sometimes become recruits for terrorist groups.

Yes, must address the Muslims' despair. Attacks against Jews, against Christians, the murder of innocents? No time for that, not with the Muslim desperation. Maybe if we let them institute sharia law, they'll play nicer.

Across Europe, terrorism has claimed 5,000 lives in the past three decades, in attacks from such groups as the Irish Republican Army, the Basque separatist group ETA, anarchists, Italy's Red Brigades, Arab nationalists, and Islamic militants.

And the response has always been to treat them as criminal attacks, or ignore them, or give the terrorists what they want. And it's never worked. 5,000 lives, and they still can't see that.

This month, the European Union released a report it had commissioned to reassess Europe's ability to confront terrorism. The study was compiled by an independent group of counterterrorism and military specialists. It showed that Europe must increase its capacity to intervene in regional conflicts worldwide, and to help root out security risks at the source.

Which means... what? Means it's war, actually. "Intervene in regional conflicts worldwide"? Like, say, in the Middle East?

To do this, the report said, leaders must stress the importance of reexamining outdated notions of protecting states in favor of an approach that protects people and that offers a wider and more interlocking concept of security. "In an era of interdependence, Europeans can no longer feel secure when the rest of the world is insecure," said the report, which was published Wednesday.

The report also emphasized a need to complement conventional military means with improved civilian elements, such as police and their trainers who can provide assistance in peacekeeping missions and in the promotion of democracy and the rule of law.

In other words, you have to fight terrorism beyond your own borders, and promote democracy there. Who's trying that right now? Not most of Europe, which doesn't want anything to do with establishing democracy anywhere.

After the attacks in Madrid, Spaniards reacted with a demonstration of collective resolve that brought 10 million people to the streets to protest the terrorists...

...and then GAVE THE TERRORISTS WHAT THEY WANTED.

Antiterrorism police have arrested 68 people in connection with the train bombings, including 20 believed to have been directly involved. The suspects are alleged to form a web that ranges from Moroccan cell-phone store owners who perhaps unwittingly helped the terrorists obtain and program phones used to trigger bombs, to Spanish nationals who helped secure some of the explosives, to a core of 20 militants who more actively took part in planning and coordinating the bombings.

The core cell has been dismantled, according to Spanish law enforcement officials.

They damaged a core cell, and it's a huge success. Has no effect on al Qaeda as a whole, leaves the international al Qaeda organization alone to continue, but it's a huge success.

The Zapatero government has worked to build bridges with the immigrant Muslim community, and the new foreign minister, Miguel Angel Moratinos, has gone on a diplomatic offensive to improve ties with its neighbor, Morocco, and other Muslim countries, relations that were frayed by Aznar's support for the war.

Give them what they want. Peace in our time. Sure, Mr. Hitler, go ahead and take eastern Europe, we'll just sit over here and you'll leave us alone, right?

Trinidad Jimenez, the spokesman on foreign affairs for the Spanish Socialist Party, said: "We know terrorism, but we are not afraid of it.... We know it needs to be confronted, but we have come to understand that it must be confronted intelligently, effectively, and within the framework of international and national law."

Give them what they want. Peace in our time. We're not afraid, which is why we'll give them exactly what they asked for.

The differences between the United States and Europe were evident in the aftermath of the two attacks: While Americans rallied around the flag, Spaniards chose a less political symbol -- a white hand.

Make it a white flag.

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Our lemon tree has sprouted a lemon. This is noteworthy insofar as we've been waiting at least two years for it.

When we got the tree, it produced a lemon almost immediately. T'was a small lemon, but a lemon it was, and Fran prepared a salmon dish for the occasion. We laughed as we squoze the citrus juice onto our fish, imagining the bounty of lemon to come. Why, soon, we thought, there'll be homemade lemonade! Lemon meringue pies! Lemon for everyone!

And then, nothing. No lemons. 2002 passed, then 2003, no lemons. We added an orange tree- no oranges, although I noticed little orange buds that were there one day and snapped off the next. Listening to a radio show one weekend, I heard that wild animals like to grab the unripe fruit. Roof rats, actually. On went some netting, and, soon, a couple of small navel oranges appeared. They're still there, green, not yet large or ripe enough to matter. But no lemons. And I'd see other people's fruit trees brimming with huge yellow produce, hanging over their fences, taunting me. I could not contain my jealousy.

And then, today, I was grilling some burgers in the backyard, and filling the pool with more water, and I grabbed the hose and decided to give the trees and plants some refreshment. Here ya go, rose bushes! Have a drink, orange tree! Hey, lemon tree, here's... hey, what's that?

Could it be?

Why, it's...

A LEMON! A nice, big, still green but unmistakable LEMON!

I'm so (sniff) proud.

Now, if the roof rats get at it, all bets are off.

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Just got back from the ballpark- Dodger game's still on, going to the bottom of the ninth tied, but I had to get back to take care of some business and get some sleep. Interesting game, but when I was there in the back of the radio booth and Fernando Valenzuela stopped by to goof around with the crew, then Steve Garvey was standing next to me, waiting to get on the air, and then, while Garvey was on the air with Mo and Ross, Tommy Lasorda came by to greet Garvey...

...I mean, come on. It was my Topps baseball card collection come to life 20 years later. Throw in a raucous crowd, a pleasantly cool evening, and free popcorn and frozen yogurt, and that's a good night. And I'm not gonna ruin it by aggravating myself with a typical political rant. It's September, it's a pennant race, it's daring Fernando to pull a chair out from under someone (Tom, always check if the chair's where you think it is), it's no time for writing anything serious. So I won't.

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Here's a press release I got in the e-mail today:

HIP HOP NATION SQUARES OFF AGAINST GEORGE BUSH

On the eve of the first Presidential Debate, THE ROOTS join CHUCK D and "SLAM BUSH" to mobilize young Miami's young voters

WHAT: A Get-Out-The-Message concert in Miami on Sept. 29, the night before the first presidential debate, in which the Hip Hop Nation will lash out against the policies of George W. Bush and call for his defeat in November. The Roots, who are not taking a partisan stance, will headline the show...

Wait just a goldurn minute.

"...who are not taking a partisan stance..."?!?

They're headlining a show "in which the Hip Hop Nation will lash out against the policies of George W. Bush and call for his defeat in November" and they're "not taking a partisan stance"?

What a weasel phrase. What weasels.

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Can I even stand to wait for this debate?

Er, yes.

I'm going to be in transit tomorrow, so I'm going to be tired and cranky when the debate airs. And unless one of the candidates farts gold boullion on the podium, or rips off his face to reveal that he is, in fact, Xang, the ruler of Planet Xatox, it's not going to be all that interesting.

Of course, I could be wrong. But I'll be too tired and cranky to notice.

Gotta go. More when I've adjusted to wherever it is I'm headed. If you need me, try the cell.

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The couple on the security line at the Delta terminal appeared a little odd from the get-go. We were behind the wife as we approached where you have to show a boarding pass, and she was wielding a sandwich in a clear box and no pass. She was looking for her husband behind us, stopped, and waited. No husband. I started to move past her and she snapped "well, okay, you can go in front of me," clearly wanting to add "IF YOU'RE IN SUCH A RUSH." Hey, sorry, lady, but if you want to go ahead of me, have your boarding pass ready. Otherwise, get the hell out of the way.

So we got on line, and they got in behind us- the small, loud, fifty-something woman and her larger, bearded, professorial husband with a cell phone mic dangling from his ear bud. And something had happened at the boarding pass stop after we got past them, something major, because Professor was agitated. He started yelling from the line back at the guard. "You were very rude to that woman!" he shouted. "I should report you!" The guard, a short woman in a TSA uniform, walked toward him and said "excuse me, sir?" He kept going, egged on by his wife: "You were rude! You had no right to be rude!" I looked back- the woman to whom he was referring was an Asian lady who had been pulled aside for not having proper paperwork; she was seated on the side, smiling, while a Delta agent worked through the problem.

Meanwhile, the Professor and the Yenta were working on the TSA guard, and she'd had enough. She asked for their boarding passes again. He started yelling again. And so it went for a few minutes, punctuated by the couple muttering dark oaths about the evil agent. Finally, boarding passes returned, they shut up, she walked away, but, later, I saw the TSA agent and a Delta person on the side, looking at the couple, nodding.

You do not want to criticize a TSA agent. You do not want to speak to a TSA agent except to say hello and yes, sir and thank you. You do what this couple did, you end up on The List. And someday, it'll come back to haunt you.

As well it should. Whatever happened to the Asian woman was a matter between her and the TSA and Delta, and she didn't appear too upset. This couple was butting in, trying to stir up trouble. I got the impression they do this a lot- the Yenta kept snapping at the Professor for small slights, like not having finished his latte ("What, you're not finished with that? I told you to finish it before we got on line!") and for arguing with the agent and then for not continuing to argue with the agent. Some people are born to do that. If that means that somewhere down the line they show up at an airport and get the full cavity search treatment, well, look, I'm not usually in favor of government intrusion, but in this case, someone needs to be intruded upon. Hard.

Me, I kept my mouth shut, nodded yes and hello and yes sir and thank you sir. So did Fran. We got through without incident. That's the way you travel.

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First, the French onion soup. Tangy and tasty, covered with a thick layer of cheese and accompanied by little toasts- some garlicy, some molasses-laced.

Next, a Newcastle Brown Ale. Always welcome.

Then a salad, then the main course- filet mignon, medium well, tender and flavorful, with a hint of garlic butter. Baked potato, long strips of zucchini and squash, carrots shredded with just a hint of candying, onion rings- more like strands of onion, lightly battered and addictive.

Finally, after a brief tour of the kitchen and wine cellar, upstairs to the dessert room, where my Vintage Chocolate Lush- a thin, dense layer of chocolate cake topped with vanilla ice cream and joined with a thick, heavenly hot fudge- was matched by Fran's "Chocolate-Chocolate-Chocolate," which had the requisite several types of chocolate cake and mousse all mushed up into one cylinder of chocolate insanity.

And we didn't even touch any of the 7,000 bottles of wine.

Yeah, dinner at Bern's in Tampa. You expect me to write about politics or sports tonight? Come on.

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