Jour de la Prise de la Bastille

Well, yesterday was Bastille Day, not a day I typically observe one way or the other, though I've always enjoyed its odd symmetry with the July 4 Holiday. The Globe's coverage of yesterday was amusing:

What a difference 10 days makes: Where we celebrate signing a piece of paper, the French celebrate a riot and prison takeover. Who says Americans are more violent?

But the 14th this year was also one week to the day of the London terrorist bombings, marked by two minutes of silence (from Reuters):

The chimes of Big Ben boomed at midday across the city to mark the start of a two-minute silence that was observed across the country and elsewhere in Europe.

Black cabs and double-decker buses pulled over as an eerie silence descended on the capital.

Indeed, the moment of silence was apparently marked all over Europe, even in France, where it interrupted their National Holiday:

In Paris, President Jacques Chirac's annual Bastille day television address was put back to mark the moment. In Madrid government officials stopped work, Berlin's buses, trams and underground trains halted and in Italy, television stations cut into normal broadcasting.

The Early Show yesterday opened with the 2 minutes of silence, but their reporter broadcasting live from London couldn't keep her mouth shut during the silence. The whole rest of the city was still and quiet, and she was just chattered away. You could see bystanders in the background glaring at her. It just so happened that the Early Show began at 7am Eastern Time at precisely the time when the 2 minutes of silence were taking place at noon in London: I'm sure the producers really wanted to catch the flavor of the moment LIVE, but they ruined it by having their babbling reporter on the scene.

More later about London, Rove, and Santorum's latest too-crazy-to-be-fiction lunacy.

Categories: politics, london, terrorism, france, bastilleday, julyfourth, byjjmg