World events

Disappointed for my daughter, Rachel, finding out today that the concert she's been looking forward to for months has been cancelled.

She's been looking forward to seeing the indie US band WALK THE MOON in Manchester tomorrow night at the Ritz for such a long time. Before she even knew where she was going to be in the country, she'd bought the tickets. And once she knew she'd be in York she'd made all the arrangements to get to Manchester.

But, today she found out that the band had cancelled their short UK & Europe tour on the back of the terrible events in Paris the other day. I am sure that the band didn't take the decision lightly, but people are always saying that you can't let the terrorists win by changing your plans and shutting yourself away "just in case".

I hope that the band haven't any plans on doing a small gig in a shopping mall or university campus back in the US. Now, that would be dangerous!

Me too Alan.

I'm sure this band would have cancelled back-in-the-day when American tourists were advised not to travel to England after some lethal IRA activity.

What wusses!

I agree with Martijn ( on another thread post ), if I'd booked to visit Paris I'd still be going. Fuck them all!

I was thinking of going to Paris sometime in mid December before this happened and if anything, I want to go now more than ever. Fuck me if I'm going to let a bunch of terrorists dictate what I do.

Wow. It's been a great week (at least here in the UK) for mothers who are also women.

Shut up and fix my dinner.

That's pretty on point...

Public transport will likely be closed. I'd spring for a taxi.
Hang in there, southern friends.

I don't even know what to say anymore.
For every "expert" that says it's nothing to do with irreconcilable religious and social hatred, another random killing proves the immediate opposite.

Killing Belgians. Because that will obviously further the cause of political Islam and stop aid and intervention in the middle-east.
Right.

Yeah, that immediately went through my mind as well. Smacks like retaliation (they'd probably have done it anyway, but this timing is not coincidental).

Religion of piss. Kill all those religious-fanatic savages with fire.

Fuck their imaginary god and fuck the death cultists, I wish severe endings for all of them.

26 now.
Many Dutch train stations are pretty much in lockdown now as well (I guess they're expecting several of the terrorists to escape by rail), and severely heightened security at Schiphol airport.
IS now claimed responsibility (somehow I already surmised this was not related to anti-Euro sentiments). That makes a lot sense as little Belgium of course is instrumental in bringing about the new Islamist Caliphate.

Our prime minister said one very good thing in his speech: "there's more of us than there is of them".
It helps subdue the anger. We ARE more, and we're BETTER.
Doesn't mean in any way we'll turn the other cheek, or need to "understand" about poor suppressed terrorists..
It means we will NOT live in fear, and will NOT be cowed into submission.

...which leads me to thinking. With the quite right-wing AFP gaining significant electoral success in Germany -pretty much the ONLY country ever openly willing to take on refugees- , seems to me these bombings aren't partcularly conductive towards obtaining a political goal, or a changing society.
But then that has always been the goal of IS.
They're not out to change the world. They're exhibiting all the signs of an apocalyptic death cult.
They want to DESTROY the world (presuming it to be followed by a magic fairyland under the wonderful wizard of Wollah).

The very idea of talking, reasoning with these people is ultimately Chamberlainy.
Their mindset is the very epitome of death and destruction. The very definition of anti-life.
In all calm and reason I think there is a perfect case to be made to eradicate them. Wipe them off the face of the earth.

And in the meantime our hope for the future lies in teachers.
Teachers teach building, thinking, striving, creating. They deliver thinkers, not destroyers.
If there is one thing western society (in general) did wrong (and continues to do so) is skimp on facilities and salaries for teachers and schools. Their worth is beyond measure.

Imagine if the world spent as much on education as it did on military. You'd be paid to go to college!

I second that!

My girl friend quit teaching because she found no job that lasted for more than two months over the past 3 years (jumped from interim to interim, sometimes quite far from where she lived). It is depressing how this system is working.