KEY POINTS:
Everybody's talking about Osama bin Laden's latest release Poppa's Got a Brand New Beard.
Characteristically grungy - it was recorded in a cave in an undisclosed location, believed to be North Waziristan - the eagerly-awaited follow-up to his cover version of David Bowie's glam-rock classic Aladdin Sane has met with a mixed response.
Some say it's a triumph of style over substance while hard-core fans expressed fears that their reclusive idol may be moving away from his trademark "death to practically everyone" message and jumping on the anti-globalisation, anti-climate change bandwagon.
Critics cautioned that, like his previous work, this video will repay repeated viewings and even being played backwards a la The Beatles' White Album.
Politics and world affairs have always contained an element of show business but in the internet-powered global village, with its short attention span and tabloid values, basic distinctions - between news and entertainment, image and reality, trivia and significance, celebrity and achievement - are becoming blurred to the point of non-existence.
The focus on bin Laden's dyed beard suggests that he's transcending his bogeyman status. In show business getting to the top is the easy part and showbiz folk respect staying power above all, particularly talent. And bin Laden knows better than anyone it's tough at the top.
Now into his seventh year as the world's most hated man, he could teach the Britney Spears and Lindsay Lohans of this world a thing or two about hanging in there and not taking their eye off the ball.
Indeed, going by Britney's tragi-comic comeback appearance this week, she'd be well advised to adopt the bin Laden formula for maintaining a hold on the popular imagination - less is more.
Sadly after the buzz created by bin Laden's video, General David Petraeus' testimony to Congress on the Iraq surge was an anti-climax.
Blame it on central casting. Compared to larger than life predecessors like George "Old Blood and Guts" Patton, Douglas "I Shall Return" MacArthur, and "Stormin" Norman Schwarzkopf, Petraeus was a wan, indeterminate presence.
It's a measure of how far George W. Bush has fallen that what remains of his credibility - and perhaps his place in history - now largely depends on this military apparatchik.
It was another military man, former Secretary of State Colin Powell, who warned Bush two months before the invasion that, "You break it, you own it" - meaning that if America brought down Saddam Hussein's regime, Iraq would then become its responsibility.
We're now witnessing the tawdry end-game. On one side are those who argue that, having created chaos, America can't just walk away. On the other is a coalition of disillusioned hawks, poll watchers, and opponents of the war who just want to close the book and move on.
Morally Powell was quite right but morality and politics seldom go hand in hand. All the indications are that America's sense of obligation will expire the day Bush leaves office.
At least bin Laden and Petraeus put Iraq and terrorism back in the spotlight. Previously, after a Republican senator was ensnared in a police entrapment operation at Minneapolis Airport, America was fixated by the arcane rituals of the public toilet pick-up.
Larry Craig, naturally a family values campaigner who opposes gay marriage, was arrested after his footwork was interpreted by the undercover officer in the next cubicle as an invitation to engage in lewd conduct.
Apparently one tap of the foot means "How about dinner and a show?" Two means "I'd like to smother you with Baskin-Robbins peanut butter 'n' chocolate icecream and ... I'll leave the rest to your frisky imagination." Three taps means "You got a spare roll of dunny paper in there, mate? I'm down to my last square."
Craig pleaded guilty in the hope, he said, that the whole thing would quietly go away. When the story broke, he was forced to resign despite insisting that he wasn't gay and that it was a misunderstanding brought about by the fact that he adopts "a wide stance" when preparing to launch.
Osama bin Laden can call America weak and decadent till he's blue in the face but you underestimate the USA at your peril while it can call on men like Sergeant Dave Karsnia of the Minneapolis Airport Police.
With a heroic disregard for his own well-being he spent the summer in the airport toilet - hellish places at the best of times where no person would loiter for an instant longer than necessary - waiting for the telltale tap of the foot in the next cubicle.
Truly the price of liberty is eternal vigilance.
Karsnia's stoic vigil yielded more than a dozen arrests.
None of his collars, as far as we know, were members of al Qaeda.
