Updates

I will most likely be incommunicado until the 26th or so due to traveling. For updates on my travels and other topics, tune in later. This past week I have been in the UK, and politically, it has certainly been an interesting one. On my first day here, (the 27th of June) Blair resigned from Parliament and Brown became the new PM. In the ensuing days, two car bombs were discovered in central London, and, in what seem to be a connected incident, a blazing car was driven into an airport tunnel in Glasgow. Afterwards, another car bomb was found outside the hospital where the driver of the Glasgow vehicle was being held in critical condition. Already the new Prime Minister is talking about an additional expansion of police powers. Now, it may sometimes seem that in the States, the security/freedom balance has tilted a little too far away from the liberty end of things, but Britain is, well, a whole 'nother country. In a given day in central London, I probably make hundreds of appearances on what is called CCTV. In the US, we have a different name for CCTV, surveillance cameras. And yes, we have them, but at nowhere near UK levels. Vehicles are being randomly stopped and searched on the way to Heathrow, an act that would be out of the question (without probable cause) in the US. And Brown may propose allowing terror-suspect detention for 90-days without charge as part of a new series of draconian measures to try and attempt to crack-down. I suppose the Brits do have an excuse. My off the cuff impression at least is that Britain is far more dangerous than the States. We have a nice big country guarded by two huge moats. Getting into this country from overseas is not easy, especially after 9/11. Also, Britain, and Europe in general, seems to have much more trouble with its immigrant relations. We certainly have our fair share of troubles, but in Europe, immigration is this new sort of phenomenon in societies with millenia of history. Naturally, some people are going to have trouble getting along with one another. As Donald Rumsfeld would say, stuff happens. On the other hand, the British do have a much more sensible attitude towards terror. After all, they have much more epxerience with people hating them then we have. After all, the first fanatic who wanted to blow things in this country up was Guy Fawkes, and that was over 400 years ago for God's sake! No one here is going to go bonkers over a couple car-bombs. If the United States ends up playing Bush's imperator fantasy for a few more centures, maybe we can develop a similar attitude. Hey, always look on the bright side!