Photo by lintmachine (flickr)

One of the last online stories run by The New York Sun before they folded at the end of September concerned reports of an “October surprise” by al-Qaeda and other Islamic terrorists.  To many observers, it stood to reason that we could see a repeat of the 2004 Madrid bombings, which propelled Jose Zapatero and his Socialist Party to power, whereupon his first major act was to withdraw Spanish forces from Iraq.  Digital chatter on Islamic networks was hot when The Sun ran the story, so the warning wasn’t really all that outlandish.

The story was picked up by blogs and news organizations big and small, but despite similar warnings by Brigitte Gabriel (as I reported here) and others, the prevailing wisdom was that a terror attack before the national elections is unlikely because it could trigger support for John McCain, who it is presumed is the more frightful (to jihadists) of the presidential contenders.

John McCain before a painting of Our Lady of Guadalupe (Mexico City) by Luis Acosta

I don’t have time to write anything just now, but a picture is worth a thousand words.

This one especially.

In fact, I could easily rip off a few thousand words about the poignant feelings and sentiments this photo stirs in me, if I had but world enough and time, as Emily Dickinson put it.

Anyway, this isn’t a political blog as such, but since I’ve lent much of my attention of late to Barack Obama, it’s only right to mention the good guys.  Haid Dasalami: fair and balanced.  (We don’t need no stinking Fairness Doctrine!).

But if I’m not going political, what relevance exactly does this post have to the global jihad?  Well, that’s where the thousand words could be useful, especially for non-Catholics.

I will point out that an image of the Virgin of Guadalupe like the one in the photo was carried aboard ship by Admiral Doria at Lepanto in 1571.  Credit for the decisive victory over the superior Ottoman forces was imputed to the Blessed Virgin and to fervent recitation of the rosary before and throughout the awful battle.