Blair is on again at G8

[mandragora]

He's flanked by Bush and Chirac, with the other leaders fanning out. I'm glad to see the rallying round - the squabble with Chirac is overshadowed by today.

Have just learned am due in court tomorrow. Luckily, it's a north London court, so if need be I'll drive there if public transport is still not running. I can't get the file, so will have to wing tomorrow's hearing. The office are faxing through the basics but the file is too big to take everything. I expect the opposition to be sympathetic and let me read their papers. That's what happens in situations like this.

The courts are still running, although obviously lots of clients won't be turning up.

The police are trying to downplay it as much as possible. They're saying that you wouldn't notice anything unusual unless you're in the affected areas.

Mainline trains are running.

Comments

[mandragora1.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the comment. Glad to know that the bombing of one of the world's major cities ranks up there in the US with conjecture about the Supreme Court nominee. *snerk*

And isn't it wierd how life goes on?

Thankfully, it does. And in London, well, we're used to it. There was the Blitz and then there was the IRA. We'll carry on, hopefully with the minimum amount of fuss.

[filenotch.livejournal.com]

Well, I did get the BBC broadcast at 9:00 AM EDT, but by that point it was into human interest stories and conjecture.

And this will affect our SC nominee, which wil have long term affects on the shifting of American political/religious culture.

I read recently the phrase Christianist, used as a counter to Islamist. We're becoming a Christianist country, even though we have more Moslems than Episcopalians (our CofE offshoot). This will not help.

Many years ago, around the first Intifada, I read an article in the Atlantic Monthly about the use of bombs as rhetorical devices. It interwove the IRA, Palestinians Basque and others. It was before the use of the phrase "F-bomb," but it seemed that the central thesis of the article applies. The bombings are used as the uiltimate in hate speech, the ultimate "Fuck you." What is such language designed to do? Either provoke a response of "No, fuck you!" or establish dominance when the target doesn't respond.

Gah. Who needs this kind of philosophizing when people are dead and wounded.

[mandragora1.livejournal.com]

Shit! I hadn't even thought that it would affect the SC nomination. Let me officially express my displeasure at the thought that any US politician *dares* to use this to advance their campaign.

London wasn't bombed because we're (nominally) a Christian country. It might have been bombed because Britain sent troops to Iraq (much to the displeasure of most of us), but it's nothing to do with religion. Rather it's to do with old hatreds and resentment, some of it justified. Sadly.