How serious was Detroit 12/25? How bad U.S. or Dutch intell?

And, what can we learn from it?

Salon's "Ask the Pilot" columnist, Patrick Smith, says Lesson No. 1 is ignore the tricks of the moment, and focus on bombs, as the Transportation Security Administration's top priority.

Lesson No. 2 is for intelligence agencies to get smarter, better and more cooperative.

That leads to Talking Points Memo, where, in response to a Josh Marshall post, a reader has three VERY pertinent observations about Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab:

1. One-way ticket from Yemen to Detroit
2. Ticket paid for with $3,000 cash
3. Passenger has no luggage

EACH ONE OF of those is supposed to be a red flag, of varying degrees of seriousness. All three should be an alarm ringing in the night, whether in the U.s. or the Netherlands.