Stroll casually along the bulging bookshelves of your local bookseller, and you’re sure to see rows and rows of books chronicling the lives and times of the generation of men known reverently to us as the “Founding Fathers.”

Former Bush administration official and former governor of Pennsylvania, Tom Ridge, was secretary of Homeland Security, and his assertions in a new memoir of his years in the cabinet of George W. Bush are whipping up ire and allegations of shameless huckstering and “passing the buck” from some former colleagues.

Within 20 words of the beginning of the prologue to his book, The End of Darwinism, former U.S. Information Agency Assistant Science Adviser Eugene Windchy announces the thesis upon which the rest of the book will be built: “In reality, Darwin was a master of tact and charm, but underneath those polished manners lurked an intensely ambitious scientist who advanced his career by means of deception and intrigue. In that way he also advanced the theory which is attributed, incorrectly, to him.”

John Galligan, attorney for Nidal Hasan is complaining to the press that his client is having difficulty finding a bank to cash his military paycheck. Nidal Hasan is still an active-duty major in the United States Army and as such he continues to draw his bi-weekly paycheck, the monthly total of which is reported to be about $6,000.

Richard Stana, the Government Accounting Office’s (GAO) Director of Homeland Security and Justice Issues, testified before a congressional subcommittee on July 22 that “alien smuggling along the southwest border is an increasing threat to the security of the United States and Mexico as well as to the safety of both law enforcement and smuggled aliens.”

 Fox News has obtained two intelligence memoranda wherein officials express concern over the call by radical Islamic cleric, Anwar al-Awlaki to kill Americans.

Sitting gravely silent in a wheelchair and dressed in his dark green Class A uniform, Army Major Nidal Hasan made his first courtroom appearance on June 1 in connection with the charge that he murdered 13 people and attempted to murder 32 others during a shooting spree on Fort Hood, Texas on November 5, 2009. The proceeding was a preliminary hearing wherein motions by both sides were heard by the judge.

The Center for Strategic International Studies (CSIS) recently published a report entitled “A Growing Terrorist Threat? Assessing ‘Homegrown’ Extremism in the United States.” The report was co-authored by Rick Nelson and Ben Bodurian. The title effectively summarizes the thesis addressed in the study’s 14 pages. Nelson and Bodurian examine the cases of five incidences of acts of violence perpetrated by Americans since the autumn of 2009. By spotlighting these particular cases, the authors hope to extricate from the fabric of these tales a common thread and then use that thread in the identification of potential targets of extremist evangelism and prevent any future attacks.

On January 9, 2010, an apparently fit, though slightly limping Umar Abdulmutallab entered the courtroom wearing the familiar khaki trousers, plain white t-shirt, and ankle bracelets that are the usual uniform of federal prisoners. The defendant was flanked by his attorney, a federal public defender, Miriam Siefer. Abdulmutallab was arraigned in a Detroit federal court. The 23-year-old Nigerian stood before a magistrate, and Siefer pled not guilty to all charges on behalf of her client.

There is a long slate of oddities still inexplicable over a month after the timely thwarting of a potentially catastrophic terrorist attack over Detroit on Christmas Day 2009.