Barcelona

I'm getting disgusted with having to acknowledge attacks like this . . .

In Barcelona, Spain, a vehicle plowed into a bunch of people, killing at least thirteen people and injuring more.  The seaside city, known for its spectacular beaches and its vibrant nightlife - the city that hosted the first Summer Olympics after the Cold War ended - has been rocked to the core.  The Islamic State claimed responsibility.  As that group gets squeezed out of the territory it conquered from Iraq and Syria for its would-be caliphate, it's lashing out in Western cities.  Who knows who will be next?

I'm feeling lousy now . . . I have a friend who lives there. :-(

Not in much of a mood to write a lot here today.  Sorry . . ..   

Manchester

We live in a scary time when we realize that violence at pop concerts is not restricted to drunk and stoned hooligans at rock or heavy metal shows.  Ariana Grande is, by all accounts, a sweet, bubbly singer influenced by rhythm and blues with an urge to get people to get up and dance.  She does not instigate rebellion or anarchy at her shows.  Her fans are, like the singer herself, mostly young and female.  So an Ariana Grande concert is the last place you would expect any danger - least of all from Grande herself, despite the fact that she actually has a hit song called "Dangerous Woman."

Maybe that's exactly why a suicide terrorist chose to blow himself up at Grande's Manchester, England show early this week.

You know what nauseates me?  I've heard arguments that you can't call a suicide bomber a coward when he's willing to take his own life, but it takes a special kind of horrible person to blow himself up at in a concert hall full of teenage girls and young women.  An Ariana Grande concert is the last thing you should have to lock up your daughters from.  

I've seen this before, but never like this.  In 1982, at a show by the punk group the Lords of the New Church, some idiot took a BB gun and shot at the stage, hitting lead singer Stiv Bators.  (Bators escaped serious injury.)  When I was a teenager, such an attack was as bad as it got in any concert.  An incident like that seems very, very inconsequential now. :-(  

Parliament

Another terrorist attack . . .

First Paris, then Brussels, then Berlin, now it's London's turn.  London became the latest national capital affected by terrorism in the latest wave of Islamic extremist attacks. This time it was a British-born convert to Islam who turned a sport utility vehicle into a weapon, as he ran over several people outside Parliament and then tried to crash the gate in front of the building.  He then got out of his vehicle and fatally stabbed a policeman before being shot to death.

It's getting so that people all over the West will be to afraid to venture out into the world.   I don't know what's going on, and I feel ill-equipped to do any more than acknowledge it.

I have a nasty feeling that an attack in Washington may not be far behind . . .. :-O