Ding dong

So Saudi King Fahd is dead. I’ll be eager to see who the White House sends to that funeral. Hope it’s the gardener.

Note this from the AP report:

The portly, goateed Fahd inadvertently helped fuel the rise of Islamic extremism by making concessions to hard-liners in an effort to boost his Islamic credentials. But he also brought the kingdom closer to the United States and agreed to a step that enraged many conservatives: basing U.S. troops on Saudi soil after the 1990 Iraqi invasion of Kuwait.

What an odd bit of writing that is: First, how do we know he “inadvertently” helped fuel the rise of Islamic extremism? Second, what an odd segue from People-magazinish adjectives — “portly, goateed” — into the tipping point for the clash of civilizations.