Al Qaeda needs

... a good copyright and trademarks lawyer.*

I've said it before, but maybe not on this blog. McDonalds may be the key to hanging Osama bin Laden's body in a gibbet from the Washington Monument after all. No corporation--say a chain restaurant like McDonalds, for example--will take on a franchisee without being able to control intimate details of that franchisee's operation under its trademarked business name. Al Qaeda? Not so picky.

Corporations insist on this for a pretty good reason: it's hard to maintain your brand identity when your franchisees don't live up to the same standards. When they don't, consumers blame the brand as a whole, not the individual restaurant, and overall business suffers.

Hundreds of angry Jordanians rallied, shouting, "Burn in hell, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi!" after the claim of responsibility was posted. --CNN

Now query if, with this week's bombings in Jordan, Al Qaeda is about to learn the same rule about popular consumption and brand identity. Why, they even killed three Palestinians, including Bashir Nafeh, apparently the head of military intelligence for the Palestinian Authority. And I know Mr. bin Laden cares about Palestinians. Right? Right?

The blood pouring out of Palestine must be equally revenged. You must know that the Palestinians do not cry alone; their women are not widowed alone; their sons are not orphaned alone. --Osama bin Laden

And especially not when orphaned by Muslim terrorist organizations, I wager.

*also a good killing, but one rant at a time.