A TALE OF FIVE MUHAMMADS: As Mark Steyn wrote a decade ago, “These days, whenever something goofy turns up on the news, chances are it involves a fellow called Mohammed:”

A plane flies into the World Trade Centre? Mohammed Atta. A gunman shoots up the El Al counter at Los Angeles airport? Hesham Mohamed Hedayet. A sniper starts killing petrol station customers around Washington, DC? John Allen Muhammed. A guy fatally stabs a Dutch movie director? Mohammed Bouyeri. A terrorist slaughters dozens in Bali? Noordin Mohamed. A gang-rapist in Sydney? Mohammed Skaf.

Flash-forward to Scott Johnson of Power Line’s “A tale of five Muhammads” today:  “From the time that I first started following pretrial proceedings in the [Somali terrorism trial] in Minneapolis, I was struck by the Muhammads involved in the case. They seemed to represent a variation of the town hall meeting in Blazing Saddles featuring one speaker after another named Johnson — Gabby Johnson, Howard Johnson, Samuel Johnson and so on. Their appearance inverted the Marxist adage. Here history repeated itself, but first as farce, then as tragedy.”

Read the whole thing.