I am generally pleased when the axiom " you are entitled to your own opinions, but you can't invoke your own facts" is played like a trump card in a heated debate.
It refreshes the mind, like a hit on the reset button, and makes paramount a very serious question. Your opinion may very well be flying into the headwinds of the revealed facts. At which point the educated western mind says.. speculative and/or untenable.
My mind has been nagged since the Times Square Bombing attempt first appeared. Within 24 hours I had digested narrative "facts" that were, at the very least, incongruent and more plainly, contradictory.
Tonight's episode of Jon Stewart's "Daily Show" addressed the failure of the media to get out a coherent narrative of Faisal Shahzad. And that, as is the function of the Daily Show, reminded me that I am not alone in getting queasy when "national security terror events" unfold. Are you comfy?