Okay, we start with the Brits...

...and their uncanny ability to "muddle through somehow." That was what they said about War II: "we'll muddle through somehow." They certainly did that. We in America tend to make melodramatic statements about our [relatively] new-found power; the Brits have taken it for granted for a long time that they are among the most powerful people in history. They built empires, and it was sheer luck that freed us from their power to promote this unique and un-PC idea of freedom for all. They are unflappable, as when the V-2 rockets roared out of nowhere and suddenly demolished entire city blocks. They might drink too much tea and have a taste for poorly-cooked food, but they'll slit your throat in a heartbeat if that's what it takes.

Write that down, Mssr. Chiraq.

DeNiro's words from "Wag the Dog" come immediately to mind: "This is nothing!" They have faced worse, and I don't want to be the poor SOB on the receiving end when they find out who did this. SAS and associates are bad boys. Hitler called the British "a nation of shopkeepers." Hey...shopkeepers sweep out the trash when it piles up too high for the customers to get in!

I remarked elsewhere on the irony of protesters being blown out of the trains they were riding into downtown London to scream against the people doing the most to protect their right to do just that. I think that might be the most immediate interpretation of the old Biblical admonition about "reaping what you sow."

Our cousins across the pond always seem to "muddle through." It's uncanny, and it's what makes them great. Here's hoping they never become as "nuanced" as the sophisticates across the Channel.

I'll eventually figure out the links, photos, etc. involved with operating this blog. Please bear with me. I have the computer literacy of a sixth-grader, and only half of the smarts.