The Northwest Airlines Flight 253 bombing attempt, now known as the Christmas Day bombing attempt, shows us a situation in which all parties involved have remarkably failed. As someone who will be flying from New York to Arizona in early January, my optimism from going from 37° to 73° is disturbed by the knowledge that I am no safer in the air now than as I would have been on September 10th, 2001. The singular question asked about this incident is "Who messed up?" That list is longer than you think.