The way of the exploding milkbottle*

[davywavy]

The best thing about terror alerts is that they make it a lot easier to get a seat on the tube to work in the morning.

First up, thumbs up to the security services. If half of what we're being told is true (and it looks as if it is) then they've done a bang-up job. Needless to say I expect that the usual conspiracy theorists will pop out of the woodwork to claim that this is all a fit up by Blair and Bush, but I'm always remnded of the Watergate conspiracy where Nixon couldn't keep a lid on a conspiracy involving six people. Suggesting a conspiracy involving what would have to be hundreds is so unlikely as to be unbelievable, so stop it before you start. Thumbs up for James Bond and his International Pals. Let me buy you a pint.

Overall, though, I'm not actually surprised by any of this; either the efficiency of the security forces, or the fact that the bombers existed. If you were to say to me that in a nation of 60+ million people there existed maybe 20-30 people willing to kill hundreds, my reaction would not be a breathlessly horrified "Really?", but more surprise at there being so few. On any bell-curve of population, every Dalai Lama and Nelson Mandela has to be offset by the odd frothing lunatic. All that has happened in the last few years is that the internet has made it easier for said frothing lunatics to hook up with one another. The good thing, on the reverse, is that the internet has made it more convenient for the rest of us to ruthlessly mock them.

You shouldn't be surprised that the Frothing Lunatics^tm are targetting civilian populations. There are two reasons for this:
1) It is ultimately, an admission of defeat.
As the IRA only started to mostly target civilian targets when they realised that they'd effectively lost, so our current batch of frothing lunatics (FL's) are doing the same. I've said it before, but it bears re-iterating. We (as in the western cultural/economic hegemony, not just me and my friends list), have won - at least until the Chinese decide to make us their bitches, and whilst the FL's might be a danger to our lives, they are most certainly not an effective danger to our society.
It's a situation analagous to, say, Accrington Stanley playing Bayern Munich; eight-one down with five minutes to go, plucky little Terrorism is still going for the ball and making like they can come back to win it.

2) The above (1) is because the fight here is not actually one of weapons, but it is one of ideas. As most people seem outraged that the FL's are targetting non-military targets, there's something else to bear in mind. We are all, in their eyes, 'enemy combatants'. If you happen to think that Bacon Butties are a grand idea and compulsory bushy beards for men aren't, then you're actively engaged in a war of ideas whether you like it or not, and some people are willing to detonate themselves to prove you wrong.
The problem is that in this war of ideas, one side has belatedly realised that they're unarmed and they've started throwing their toys out of the pram with explosive force.

Like I say, though, for all the hoo-ha about the FL threat, they're not much of a threat to our overall society. I'm more concerned by the fact that John Prescott is currently wedged into an overstuffed chair in No.10 with one porky finger on The Button and another on his secretary's arse than I am about the possibility of getting blown up on the tube home tonight.
They threaten my life, but all they've actually managed to do this time round is make some people cancel thier holidays. Thanks to our fantastic police service and their own ultimate ideological failure, they're unlikely to manage much more than that.
And, when it comes down to it, there's really only one thing to do with people who aren't really that much of a threat to our way of life:



^{*flywingedmonkey: After our conversation yesterday, I thought "Sod it, this one is too good not to use."}

Comments

[silver-blue.livejournal.com]

That was an excellent explanation of the problem.

Add in a touch of jealousy because we can like bacon butties and be clean shaven, and are allowed to say so without getting stoned, and we're nearly there. :)

[(Anonymous)]

I'm more concerned by the fact that John Prescott is currently wedged into an overstuffed chair in No.10 with one porky finger on The Button and another on his secretary's arse

Well, I suppose it was inevitable that sooner or later this subject was going to come up.

I guess I should have known. Maybe I was expecting too much of you. Call me naïve, maybe I deserve nothing better (?), but I have to say, I’m more than a bit disappointed.

Perhaps you’re not even aware (or could it be that you didn’t think it was worth your while taking the trouble to find out?) that in this country alone, one woman in four either has been, or will be, sexually molested by John Prescott at some point during her life. Statistically speaking, the chances are that at least a couple of dozen of your other female readers will still bear the scars* of an encounter which our society still considers to be “not quite nice” or something to be swept under the carpet as quickly as possible. Like, it’s the victim’s own fault, right? Or maybe we should just all keep our heads down, and not rock the boat.

Do you really feel this is an acceptable subject for your juvenile, right wing brand of “humour”?

I don’t think any of my friends would tell me I had no sense of humour. Ordinarily, I am perfectly capable of seeing the point of an amusing joke, in the appropriate context. All that I’m saying is, I wouldn’t have felt it would take much effort just now and again to … THINK … (yes, bit of a tall order, I know) … before you post. That’s all. Perhaps you should just ask yourself this: do you really feel it’s a meaningful achievement, in the long run, to raise a few cheap laughs at the expense of those (who some people might say are just as important) whose feelings (yes, we have feelings too) might be – actually - profoundly traumatised?

(Of course you’re welcome to carry on believing differently, if you really want to.)

H

*psychological

[(Anonymous)]

Try again, but expunge from your mind all knowledge of grammar. Perhaps use some L337

[(Anonymous)]

I don't need your patronising advice, actually

H

[riksowden.livejournal.com]

Hmm, i support both bacon butties and beards, what does this make me?

[davywavy.livejournal.com]

What's your position on alcohol?

[riksowden.livejournal.com]

flat on my back!

[davywavy.livejournal.com]

I don't reckon you're much of a threat to our way of life either then.

[riksowden.livejournal.com]

Hooray!

[elbly.livejournal.com]

Maybe I'm being a little nieve and hopeful but I thought their (the fl's) main objection was not our refusal to all become Muslims ourselves but at our (the UK) possition of bitch to the bastards (the US) and our (both the US and the UK following behind like the good little dog that we are) disgusting mis-use of the east and our insistance on raping them for oil.

Of course I was aware that there are some fl's who want us to all see that their religion is the only religion, but some of those are Christian too.

[davywavy.livejournal.com]

This is true of dogmatists of any philosophy, and not just of religion, which is why I very carefully avoiding using the word Islam in teh above post. Ostensibly Socialist/Atheist suicide bombers have killed more people than Hamas and Hizbollah put together.

[elbly.livejournal.com]

Good god!*
Really?
I had no idea! (I'm not a big follower of SB's I confess - not something I've read up on)
I must own that my comment was purely based on the current situation.


* statement of surprise only.

[davywavy.livejournal.com]

I refer you to the Tamil Tigers, the Socialist/Athiest organisation in Sri Lanka, whose 'Black Tiger' cadre of suicide bombers have killed killed an estimated 5000+ people since the early 1980's. Coupled with a recent spate of suicide bombings in China (which don't seem to be making the news, as they appear to be carried out by people protesting the policies of the state) and several suicide attacks by the Japanese Red Army in the 1970's, and you have a bodycount which non-athiest, non-socialistically inspired killers can only aspire to.
Blaming religion is lazy thinking, and I reject it.

[silver-blue.livejournal.com]

And if both the US and the UK left the Middle East to its own devices and apologised, you think that would solve the problem?

As opposed to guaranteeing the destruction of Israel and giving all the terrorists the perfect justification to keep bombing us for fun, because our reaction would apparently be to hide in a corner and say "sorry".

Actually, I'm starting to think that the best thing for the various apologists for past UK/US/Western action in the Middle East would be for them to pop down to terrorists strongholds in Iraq, Lebanon and Afghanistan to say sorry personally, and see how much sympathy that garners them.

Incidentally, given that we "rape" them for oil, how come we pay so much for it?

[davywavy.livejournal.com]

Incidentally, given that we "rape" them for oil, how come we pay so much for it?

That's easy. It's because Gordon Brown takes 66p in every £ spent at the pumps to spend on extra Jags and grace-and-favour apartments for Prescott, Blunkett and Mandelson, expensive jollies fact finding missions for eurocrats, ill-planned occupations of foreign countries, and porn.*

*I might be making one of these up.

[colin-boyle.livejournal.com]

The level of tax paid in the UK on petrol is actually quite good because
1 - It reduces our carbon dioxide emmissions
2 - When there is an oil-price shock, it hits us much less as both the proportional effect is less and there is also the opportunity to freeze (as has been done) or ultimately reduce the level of tax to balance out price rise.

Having said that, I would like to see all carbon dioxide emmitting activities taxed appropriately (i.e. higher) to ensure we achieve contraction and convergence down to a sustainable level of emissions.

[elbly.livejournal.com]

And if both the US and the UK left the Middle East to its own devices and apologised, you think that would solve the problem?

Of course not. That doesn't mean that the FL's don't blieve that though.

Incidentally, given that we "rape" them for oil, how come we pay so much for it?

When you say "we pay so much" does that mean the west paying the middle east for it or consumers paying at the pumps?

And are you saying that if someone rapes a hooker, then throws £10000 at her, does that mean she wasn't raped but instead paid well for her services?

[silver-blue.livejournal.com]

Both the West, paying the Middle East, and the consumers paying at the pumps.

Maybe we should stop taking their oil. If we could provide it from elsewhere then the Middle East dictatorial and religious regimes propped up by oil revenues would fast collapse, because they haven't got anything else to export except terrorists.

As may have been said already by others...

[applez.livejournal.com]

re: 1.

I quite agree. That's why all the post-9/11 talk of "a new Cold War" and "mushroom clouds" seemed entirely nonsensical to me. Al Qaeda has the organisational acumen to blow up multiple planes or ships or trains at the same time, killing hundreds, even thousands - but they in no way measure up to the threat of annihilation we grew up with during the Western-Soviet idiocy.

In terms of wrecking the nation, only the citizenry and the government have that ability.

re: at least until the Chinese decide to make us their bitches,

Repeat after me: "Wo Ai Ni" ... best learn the lingo friend. ;-)

re: 2 - war or ideas

I agree that this should primarily be a war of ideas, but I don't think the US, at least, is anywhere near 'victory.' Frankly, the US has betrayed too many of its own principles to be a beacon, a natural moral leader, in this war of ideas.

Re: As may have been said already by others...

[davywavy.livejournal.com]

Depends what those ideas are. It's undeniable that shopping, booze, Lordi winning the Eurovision song contest, women getting some choice in who they go to bed with, and being able to buy Gilette Mach 3's without having to resort to the black market are a whole lot more interesting and enjoyable to the vast majority of humanity than anything else currently on offer, especially from the Frothing Lunatic corner.

Re: As may have been said already by others...

[applez.livejournal.com]

It's worth noting the partial and wholesale rejection of these offerings for a life of "meaning" has its own popular wing (beyond the lunatic fringe), even in the nativist US of A.

Re: As may have been said already by others...

[davywavy.livejournal.com]

True enough, but fortunately their explosions haven't progressed beyond abortion clinics to mass murder yet. If at some point they do (and I would't be the least bit surprised if they do, considering the example of Tim McVeigh), then the mass consciousness of happy consumers will have to bury them in a wave of porn and tat as well.

I knew this would be useful again.

[vulgarcriminal.livejournal.com]

Re: I knew this would be useful again.

[davywavy.livejournal.com]

Ah, the League of exploding gentlemen.

Re: I knew this would be useful again.

[vulgarcriminal.livejournal.com]

It's a bit like Charmed but without the dirty witchcraft and hot chicks.