Everybody is now talking about numbers. 9-11, and now 3-11. And 3-11 came exactly 911 days after 9-11.

Etc.

If this numbers game is intended as psychological warfare, it reveals how weak and superstitious its proponents are. Are they so medieval as to imagine that numerology will reduce the West to quivering obsequiousness, ready to surrender to some magical, almighty Caliphatic dhimmitude? (Quivering in fear of -- gasp! -- 4-11????)

Hah!

The people who blew up that train are simply terrorists who hate freedom. I think it would be nice to simply execute 911 terrorists just to show the contempt in which we hold them. But that would be aping their tactics, plus it would be a reaction based in anger.

Better to clone the "Prophet" and raise the boy in the free West! Then the bastards can hear the truth from his own mouth.

I only wish that more Americans would realize that this is NOT a war between Islam and Christianity, or Islam and an ill-defined entity called "Judeo-Christianity." It is a war (by certain Islamic fundamentalist crackpots) against all freedom. The right to be left alone and decide what -- if any -- religion one wants. That is why the West is hated.

Trains -- occupied by free people simply going wherever they wanted to go -- were called "trains of death" by the terrorists because they want free people to die, die, and die some more, until they surrender their freedom by acknowledging the superior power of terror, and then submitting to it.

It's better to fight. Let's remember that they want to die and we want to live. We can make that happen, because there are far more of us who want to live than they who want to die.

What we need to work on is the quite natural aversion so many people have to killing our enemies. The attacks on civilians, are, I believe, an attempt to exploit this aversion, because civilians tend to be more afraid to do the killing, and more likely to demand, to sue for "peace" -- even if it means surrender.

To me it's common sense and simple logic that people who are trying to kill you should be killed. It's basic self-defense, and if it involves an organized enemy it's called war. If they bring the war to your city, then you kill them wherever and whenever you find them.

I worry, though, that things are getting to the point where "anti-war" means "anti-self-defense." That is what the terrorists are counting on. A massive "anti-war" effort to stop people from fighting back.

I'm hoping an entire country doesn't surrender because 200 people were killed on 3-11, 911 days after 9-11.

The math is wrong!

(Of course, it's not really a mathematical calculation; it's superstitious reasoning, which is based on fear.)

UPDATE: In explanation of the bombing of the Masonic lodge in Istanbul recently, Little Green Footballs links to one of the nuttiest essays I have ever seen, attempting to link the Masons to the Simpsons and the Eagles and the Jews, and.... to that infamous enemy of god, Coca-Cola!

Did I just mention superstition?

(Or did I just parody a copyrighted image?)

UPDATE: Readers who think I might be overreacting to the mass murders in Spain should read what Emperor Misha has to say:

The Useless Nitwits on the East River may have rushed to place the blame squarely on ETA, but we think we recognize the slimy trails of sand maggots when we see them. Still, we guess that time will tell. Not that it matters, really. All that DOES matter is that everyone even remotely connected to this atrocity is rounded up and tortured to death.

UPDATE: My thanks to Glenn Reynolds for linking this post, and a warm welcome to all. If I could add anything, it would be to simply ask -- even insist? -- that if you haven't done so already, to contemplate these pictures, (this one too) and read the links. 2 million people turned out. All those umbrellas, in the rain.... It looks like an entire city emptying into the streets in a moving display of unity against terrorists.

Yes, terrorists. Not "militants." Not "guerillas." Not "resistance fighters."

TWO MILLION.

I don't know whether we had that many in the streets after 9-11, and frankly, I'm afraid to research it..... But there's no way I can equal those pictures with words.

MORE: Jeff Jarvis said

I only wish I could march alongside them, our allies.

This is everybody's war.

TECHNICAL QUESTION: People are pointing out correctly that the attack happened 912 days after 9-11, not 911 days. A report cited by Drudge earlier today put it this way:

The attack occurred exactly 2 1/2 years after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in the United States - and there 911 days in between the terror attacks in Madrid and those in New York and Washington. It also was Europe's worst terror attack since the 1988 bombing of a Pan Am jetliner over Lockerbie, Scotland, killed 270 people.

Does that end the inquiry into Islamic numerological hocus-pocus theories?

Well, that depends. Here's how the Islamic leap year works:

While the Gregorian calendar begins with the birth year of Jesus Christ, the official Islamic calendar begins with the year of Muhammad's hegira and runs in 30-year cycles. Hence, leap years occur on the second, fifth, seventh, 10th, 13th, 16th, 18th, 21st, 24th, 26th and 29th year. Normally, years contain 354 days, except on leap years when there are 355 days. Each year is divided into lunar months, each one 29 or 30 days long except when the leap year day is added to the last month.

Although this may sound complicated to westerners, so too is the Gregorian calendar. Because the Islamic calendar is based upon lunar months, its numbered years and months vary from the Gregorian calendar. Hence, the present Islamic year of 1422 began on March 26, 2001, and will end on March 15, 2002 on the Gregorian calendar.

How would I know? Islamic years are shorter than the Western years -- by eleven days.

Look at this! This gets so complicated that you can't even print an Islamic calendar in advance!

Anyone who can figure it out can go work for the State Department, I guess.

(Whether measured by the 911 day interval or the 912th day, it seems close enough for terrorist work -- and close enough to satisfy the psychotic minds which obsess over numerological magic. I don't; I just want the terrorists killed. But for the sake of utter nit-pickiness, what if we were to factor in the worldwide nature of terrorism, as well as time, and measured days by 24 hour increments beginning with 9-11? The train explosion occured at 07:39 Spanish time, which was 01:39 US Eastern Time on 3-11. Counting the days as 24 hour increments beginning from the time of the 9-11 attacks, the terrorists still had until 08:46 US Eastern Time before the 912th day officially started. I realize this sounds crazy, but in my hometown of Berkeley, California, the Spanish attacks happened on 3-10!)

MORE: Roger L. Simon reported this ominous statement from the BBC:

"The BBC's security correspondent, Frank Gardner, says the nightmare scenario for Spain would be a collaboration between Islamic and Basque groups. He says recent events in Iraq have shown how different groups can work together in a common cause."

Unless it "reappears" later, Roger's headline quote simply isn't there! Not the first disappearing quote from the BBC, either.....

I suspect the reporting of this story is influenced by high political stakes.

Maybe also the non-reporting.

(Or is this "un-reporting"?)

AND MORE: InstaPundit readers who have just arrived might want to read my latest post on terrorist denial.

FINALE: I hated to see this happen, but it appears that the Spanish elections were a affected by terrorism.

Al Qaida got what it wanted.