Aftermath
G'day all!
I am about to cast off the thumb of the second thrummed mitten. Hooray! It would've been done much earlier if I hadn't broken one of the (pink plastic) DPNs when it got hooked in the gladwrap around my lunch.... Hooray for warm thrummed mittens! My friends think they are bizarre and then they put their hands inside and their faces light up with pleasure :-)
No pics again. I so bad. Maybe I have a pic ready to go in my directory that I can pop in. A pic of anything is better than nothing? D'oh. No pics I haven't already used. Maybe I should take knitting to work and take pics of it reclining around various places in Melbourne... I do take knitting to work but I only knit on the train and rarely at lunchtime.
Well what a day it has been. I've read a few blogs and a few comments on blogs about the London bombings. I've watched the news. The Poms have not declared a holy war or crusade upon terror. I guess they (we) are already involved in it. Too late she cried as she waved her wooden leg.
So I annoyed Beth yesterday. I expect to diss someone cos you always tick someone off if you have an opinion. *My* opinion is that the Bush administration played into the hands of the terrorists by reacting extremely strongly. It looked for someone to blame. That someone claimed the blame because they want to polarise opinion. They did their best to polarise opinion. Only when you do that can you overwhelm the vast majority of moderates. Yes, I expect the American government to display strength when its people are attacked, but I think the way it has shown that strength has really helped push more Muslims into believing that the West, and the USA in particular, has it in for the Muslim faith. I also think that one country imposing its will on another is going to cause problems. This essay in the DailyKos from ages ago and this summary (I hope the page displays better on your monitor than on mine) have given me much food for thought.
Plus a line or two from my favourite TV show reminds us "The enemy is hate. The enemy is fear." The enemy is that which you do not understand. When you hate and fear something, you have polarised yourself and you are much more likely to take actions you would normally not. Terrorists want people to become radicals cos radicals help drive their cause. The Bush administration has radicalised, possibly for their own reasons. I don't tar people with the one brush, and I am glad to see that political debate has not been stifled in the USA so far, despite some hefty efforts from said administration....
That is why I am glad the Brits, and Londoners in particular, are being so phlegmatic. They have suffered the Blitz in WWII (Pearl Harbour had nothing on the Blitz). They have suffered SinnFein attacks (which rarely caused many deaths - interesting). To radicalise is to submit to the terrorist threat. I was raised to be tolerant (not that I realised it at the time) and all around me I see signs of intolerance and unkindness. It shouldn't be this way.
I hope with all my heart that Australia does not have to suffer what the US and Britain and Spain have.
anon!
I am about to cast off the thumb of the second thrummed mitten. Hooray! It would've been done much earlier if I hadn't broken one of the (pink plastic) DPNs when it got hooked in the gladwrap around my lunch.... Hooray for warm thrummed mittens! My friends think they are bizarre and then they put their hands inside and their faces light up with pleasure :-)
No pics again. I so bad. Maybe I have a pic ready to go in my directory that I can pop in. A pic of anything is better than nothing? D'oh. No pics I haven't already used. Maybe I should take knitting to work and take pics of it reclining around various places in Melbourne... I do take knitting to work but I only knit on the train and rarely at lunchtime.
Warning - political opinion ahead
Well what a day it has been. I've read a few blogs and a few comments on blogs about the London bombings. I've watched the news. The Poms have not declared a holy war or crusade upon terror. I guess they (we) are already involved in it. Too late she cried as she waved her wooden leg.
So I annoyed Beth yesterday. I expect to diss someone cos you always tick someone off if you have an opinion. *My* opinion is that the Bush administration played into the hands of the terrorists by reacting extremely strongly. It looked for someone to blame. That someone claimed the blame because they want to polarise opinion. They did their best to polarise opinion. Only when you do that can you overwhelm the vast majority of moderates. Yes, I expect the American government to display strength when its people are attacked, but I think the way it has shown that strength has really helped push more Muslims into believing that the West, and the USA in particular, has it in for the Muslim faith. I also think that one country imposing its will on another is going to cause problems. This essay in the DailyKos from ages ago and this summary (I hope the page displays better on your monitor than on mine) have given me much food for thought.
Plus a line or two from my favourite TV show reminds us "The enemy is hate. The enemy is fear." The enemy is that which you do not understand. When you hate and fear something, you have polarised yourself and you are much more likely to take actions you would normally not. Terrorists want people to become radicals cos radicals help drive their cause. The Bush administration has radicalised, possibly for their own reasons. I don't tar people with the one brush, and I am glad to see that political debate has not been stifled in the USA so far, despite some hefty efforts from said administration....
That is why I am glad the Brits, and Londoners in particular, are being so phlegmatic. They have suffered the Blitz in WWII (Pearl Harbour had nothing on the Blitz). They have suffered SinnFein attacks (which rarely caused many deaths - interesting). To radicalise is to submit to the terrorist threat. I was raised to be tolerant (not that I realised it at the time) and all around me I see signs of intolerance and unkindness. It shouldn't be this way.
I hope with all my heart that Australia does not have to suffer what the US and Britain and Spain have.
anon!
Comments
Post a Comment
I enjoy getting comments but if I don't have your email address, I may not be able to reply 8-\