Over the course of a week I will be hosting and moderating an online salon discussion on terrorism in conjunction with Mark Goldberg of UN Dispatch. The questions and prompts will cover everything from defining the scope of the threat to root causes to the most effective counterterrorism tactics within a broader strategy.

Damn! I missed a meeting at the Center for Strategic and International Studies yesterday with three of my favorite national security thinkers — David Ignatius, Zbigniew Brzezinski, and Brent Scowcroft.

Julia Watson has a terrific food and restaurant blog eat Washington that I have been checking up on frequently. I’m not intimidated by much, but I do find that I get nervous thinking about cooking — and even more rattled actually doing it, particularly when other humans are involved.

Law of the Seas Treaty advocate Caitlyn Antrim took this shot of the Air Force Memorial from her Arlington home at dawn one recent morning.

I’ve been offline for a day or so working behind the scenes on a number of fronts that I can’t be all that specific about. For Jane Mayer fans, I’m pleased to see that her book is again at #6 on Amazon. More soon — promise.

(U.S. Global Leadership Campaign Director Liz Schrayer and pollster Geoff Garin explain U.S. military leadership attitudes on U.S. national security — partial video) Bob Gates sent shockwaves through the national security community last year at Kansas State University when he dared suggest that the non-military instruments of power are under-resourced. Turns out, he’s not alone….

I don’t usually plug organizational promotions, but this is just a bit too cool to keep to myself. Hopefully candidates for office — especially Congressional candidates, who don’t have large bureaucracies or pools of advisors to educate them — will take this quiz and do well.

I’m in Portland, Maine, heading back through Boston tomorrow to New York on Tuesday. Between apartment hunting, work and traveling, I’ve finally had a free second to take a peek at the latest of the promising presidential transition-related initiatives, this one launched by the power players at the Connect US Fund.

Former Senator and McCain campaign co-chairman Phil Gramm has been a pain in the back end for McCain economic policy chief Douglas Holtz-Eakin for a very long time.

Gavin Sheridan is a great and talented blogger in Ireland. Yesterday, he celebrated his 6th “Blogiversary.” He has me beat by two years and some change.