London

I woke up this morning, checked Slashdot, and was jogged from bleary-eyed to awake by the headline "six bomb attacks in London" (it turns out there were only four, but early reporting is always tricky). An as-yet unnamed group, probably an extreme Islamicist group, had killed 37 people, and wounded 700 more. My first reaction was great concern - family and friends in the area, and from 4,500 miles away it's hard to know for sure if anyone's okay. I freaked out for a bit, and then started emailing/calling around to check on everyone. The good news is that nobody close to me was hurt. That's a big relief, although I'm still shocked by the attack - and also glad to see that the London spirit in the face of terror remains the same: business as usual, otherwise the terrorists have won. Now, if only some of our leaders would realize that this applies to liberty-destroying laws, also!

The sheer cynicism expressed by some in the Slashdot article, and also in some Livejournals really makes me sick. That an attack was likely was well known, but that does not reduce the horror of the loss of life and injuries sustained by the victims (although it did wonders for handling the aftermath; it seems the emergency services were fantastic). That the attack was probably the end-result of Western foreign policy is also well known, but again that does nothing to reduce the overall tragedy. It is always a terrible thing when human lives are ended needlessly through violence, whether in Iraq, Africa, London, or New York. Self-proclaimed Liberal pacifists who argue anything else are neither Liberal (respect of the individual's right to pursue happiness being a central tennet), nor are they pacifist if they do not recognize that lives are of equal value, and all premature loss of life is tragic.

That said, as a Liberal (but not a pacifist) I'd still lay my life on the line for their right to be morons.

Mood: depressed
Music: None