A brutal stabbing on a London street followed by a rant from the
blood-covered suspect links the assault to attacks against
Muslims.   The first question after the slaying of a British
soldier on a busy street in London on Wednesday was also the
first one after the Boston Marathon bombing, the Atlanta
Olympics bombing and many other such incidents: Was it
terrorism?  In London, the facts seem to suggest the answer is
almost surely yes. There was dramatic violence in a non-military
setting with an apparently political purpose. "You people will
never be safe,'' an attacker, holding a bloody knife and meat
cleaver, tells a video camera. "Remove your government. They
don't care about you.''  Laura Beth Nielsen, associate professor
of sociology and director of legal studies at Northwestern
University, has studied the language of terrorism.  She says the
London case seems to be terrorism under virtually any definition
but that often the word is used so loosely as to be useless.
Over the years, the word has been us