We appear to be at the stage where we have a minute's silence, flags at half mast, and 'moving' rallies of people showing they 'aren't afraid'.
We appear to be at the stage where we have a minute's silence, flags at half mast, and 'moving' rallies of people showing they 'aren't afraid'.
GS, I'm pretty sure I ask you and Yev this every time it comes up because you're very critical of 'the cycle'
What should be done instead? How should people react?
I don't know why they're not afraid.
I think this is a pretty cool twist, the whole vehicle thing. So much easier and effective than making bombs and shit. Nobody saw it coming either and it's almost impossible to stop, short of pedestrianising every single city centre.
I'd have no qualms with it, as long as they provided decent parking outside and had a dedicated park and ride bus service in operation.
I think there needs to be an appreciation of the dire nature of the situation and not a continual rehash of "we're not afraid", "it won't change us" etc. Which is manifestly not true. If it won't change us, for example, why are there now barriers on London bridge?
Throughout this whole issue there's been a complete disconnect with the reality of the situation, starting with "it has nothing to do with Islam" to the tired trodden stock response we see now time and time again.
Even pedestrianised city centres need a way to let vehicles in for deliveries and the like. All they'd need to do is steal a council or delivery van and all that planning and expenditure means fuck all.
Sorry has your way of life been changed by a concrete barrier being put up on London Bridge?
Guildford just has fuck off bollards and a bell that someone else buzzes you in with. Sure you can start kidnapping peoples families and stuff but that's already making the plan 3 layers more complicated.
Infrastructure security vs Intelligence Security you mean? Technically I guess but one can be used adversely to attack people and one is a prevention method of attack against people. I don't think Police should be armed but I do think they should get to wear stab proof vests.
I'll be honest, I'm dead against it.
According to the internet, what happened was Plan C. Plan A was to fill a lorry with gas bottles and blow it up, but they didn't have the paperwork to hire a bigger vehicle; and Plan B was to put the gas bottles in two smaller vans and then blow those up, but they didn't know how to do it. So then they just ran a van through a street instead. It sounds like the West has finally met its match.
It's concerning, just wait until the Muzzies start getting C1 and stuff on their licenses.
As ever what needs to happen is there needs to be an intellectual line drawn between Islam as a whole and Salafism (and explanations made as to how the two are related), so that people actually understand what the spackers believe. Salafi-jihadists are basically like the puritans in the 1600s, or Amish, or whoever in terms of rejecting all advances made since the 7th century.
The establishment won't do this though because it neither sells papers, nor settles agendas.
The heartening part of all this is that they were unable to work out how to blow up a van full of things that explode relatively easily.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-40979128
What a total fucking bad ass.
Possibly another one, this time in Finland.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-40978446
Someone should start a new thread for that one.
Yeah, start a thread for it Yev.
120 gas canisters.
One can only imagine what that would have resulted in had the perps not been complete fucking tools.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-40990927
Fuck you Pert.
Blowing up that stupid unfinished church would have been some effort, and easily their 'best' since 11/9.
I think the Ariana one was a decent shout for the specific kid factor.
I've been to that Church - don't worry, this isn't a story about how I had a close shave with a terrorist based death - was stupid enough to pay whatever ludicrous amount of Euros it is they charge to get in and there is literally nothing to do inside it.
It's a church... what did you expect to do inside it? Couple of loops on the indoor rollercoaster?
Ah, yeast infection strikes.
What I meant was... as far as churches go, it's a fucking boring one inside.
It's definitely not worth the money you have to pay.
It's a church. None of them are.
I thought the outside was quality and a made for a cracking backdrop to tapas and a beer, but as far as the internals go, those in Rome pissed all over it for me.
Other than the vitraux which can be really good depending on the time of day you go, the rest is substandard as far as churches go. And it suffers from the fact that you've already seen the exterior which is grandiose and unique (and unfinished). And you have to pay something silly like 20 euros to go in so you expect something spectacular.
To put it in perspective I believe it's not even the most impressive church in Barcelona (still talking about the inside of course). I felt the cathedral was more impressive.
Yeah, I didn't benefit from any sunlight hitting the windows.
Not sure the attack here was motivated by religion, but we should hear more about that when they start questioning the attacker soon. Felt a bit odd having a 'terrorist attack' here, but I have to say that I wasn't really fazed by this at all. There was a similar attack in Russia too during the weekend. Took three minutes from our police to detain the fucker after getting the call
The interior of churches and cathedrals are great to see. I foolishly thought I could just pay on the gate for that one in Barcelona, and by the time I got there couldn't go in that day, so I'm glad it's nothing special inside.
The interior of those in the Vatican are probably the most impressive I've seen. Externally Florence is right up there.
I thought Sagrada Familia was pretty awesome when I went. The outside is amazing and internally it's very impressive. The way it has different areas representing the different seasons and the stained glass windows lighting up the place, I thought it was cool (for a church).
The one in Florence was outstanding externally but totally boring inside.
I'd say that historically relevant churches/cathedrals are the coolest thing man-made things you can sightsee. They give insight into the era in which they were built, the culture that built them, the religion that they were built for (assuming we include Orthodox churches and other things), and they have a ghostly mystical aura about them that always gives me the chills. Add to that the fact that they would generally be the focal point of a city/civilization when built and so tend to be the crowning architectural achievement of wherever it is they are.
Yup. Although you can extend that to all architecture. Imagine in 60 years time when we look at all these uniform, open plan office blocks and their 'glass everywhere' approach with some kind of reverence.
The one in Seville is breathtaking.