I've often felt like I'm straddling the blogging universe, with one Birkenstock in progressive America and one sensible shoe firmly planted in muddy England.
Now I find there's a name for what I do: Bridge Blogging. I'm bringing news of one part of the world to another. Granted, it's a part of the world that's more than adequately covered by others (see my "Food's Not Good but the Blog's Great" blogroll), but I try to bring a unique perspective, and no small amount of ignorance.
Now that my mission is identified, I'll get on with it then. Some typical British reactions I've come across the last couple of days regarding the attacks on Thursday:
From Dave Weeden:
Who’d have thought the French would take the Olympics so seriously?
And if there’s one good thing about all this, at least 7-7 is a date the Americans can get the right way round.
From JonnyB:
I suppose I could write something serious. But then they'd have won, wouldn't they?
Tim Blair follows the money:
But I have a more sophisticated theory: London's streets creaked and rattled with nervous new cyclists Friday after bicycle sales rocketed in the wake of bomb blasts on three underground trains and a double-decker bus.
Damn bike cartels.
Blighty Blog has a history lesson:
Ever heard of the blitz? A mere inconvenience. Back to work in the morning.
From another bridge blogger, Chase me ladies, I'm in the cavalry:
Everyone’s all, “These evil barbaric fiends, these monstrous vermin,” and I’m like, “What are you trying to do? Hurt their feelings?” Incidentally, Britain could have 500 such attacks a year and it would still be less violent than Colombia (43,000 murders per annum, according to the President’s website). That would quickly become quite tiresome, though, if every time you got on a bus some enemy of democracy blew it up. Anyway, bollocks to it. Even to still be discussing it is to play their game. Let’s talk about something else.
While bloggers have gripped their keyboards and reacted stoically, The Sun newspaper goes apeshit:
Britain is crawling with suspected terrorists and those who give them succour. The Government must act without delay, round up this enemy in our midst and lock them in internment camps.
Remember the play I almost went to Thursday night? Apparently the Telegraph reviewer had a change of heart about "Talking to Terrorists", which I've decided I do want to see, more than ever.
What I would show them is this from Andrew, who was on the train behind the one hit near Liverpool Street:
An open letter to the terrorist cunts who tried to kill me today:
Fuck you. You missed me. Better luck next time.
That about sums it up.
