The Expansionist

Thursday, July 21, 2005

London, Again. There were four "attempted bombings" in London, media here report. Only one person was injured this time, but nerves were rattled nonetheless. The term "attempted" was affixed to "bombings" because not all the bombs went off. Those that did were not, however, "attempted" but actual, so "attempted" is an annoying manipulation of language plainly designed to reduce concern.
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Two Blairs, one the police commissioner (Ian), the other the Prime Minister (Tony), had different takes on the motive behind the blasts:

"Clearly the intention must have been to kill," Ian Blair told a news conference. "You don't do this with any other intention." * * * "We can't minimize incidents such as this," [Tony Blair] said at a joint news conference with the Australian prime minister at No. 10 Downing St. "They're done to scare people, to frighten them and make them worried."

If "we can't minimize incidents such as this", why call them "attempted" bombings?
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And if blasts can worry people without killing them, is that enuf to make them think that maybe they should change the policies that are bringing bombs to Britain?
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Sad to say, the first bombings, two weeks ago, do seem to have been suicide blasts, contrary to what was first believed. It's tragic that some young people, who have unnumbered reasons to live, are so maddened by injustice and religious fanaticism that they kill themselves to kill others.
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Rodney King famously asked, "Can't we all just get along?" No, I'm afraid we can't, not as long as religious fanatics of one type demand the right to dispossess people who have lived in Palestine for hundreds or thousands of years because God Himself "gave" them that land, and religious fanatics of another type insist that everyone must believe only one thing, and anyone who dissents must be killed.
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Religious tolerance is a rare and precious thing.
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(The current U.S. military death toll in Iraq, according to the website "Iraq Coalition Casualties", is 1,771.) Will media take note when the number rises to 1776?

- posted by L. Craig Schoonmaker @ 5:01 PM

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