Douglas Adams had the right idea.

The big news story today is the terrorist attack in Glasgow. Two men drove a Jeep Cherokee into the main terminal of Glasgow International Airport and set it on fire, causing structural damage to the terminal and and badly burning one of the men in the vehicle. The other man got out and, rather han being captured by police, was taken down by a punch to the face by a member of the public. Only in Glasgow. The burnt man was taken to a nearby hospital, the A&E ward of which was promptly shut down after a "suspect device" was found on the man's body.

This whole thing, in which no one died and the only injuries were self-inflicted, has turned into a major terrorist event, dominating all news reports and drowning out anything relevant. Switch to any news channel, at least in the UK, and the same images of the now-long-extinguished fire will be playing alongside messages telling you that the police are "investigating" and pointing out that fire is bad. It all comes shortly after two apparent car bombs were discovered in London yesterday.

It makes you really wonder about the society that we live in. Terrorist alerts are raised and the police and politicians are all making statements about the state of the nation and the seriousness of all this. It will no doubt be trumpeted as an example of why security measures need to be tightened even further. Police will be given bazookas and the power to abduct people and scaremongering politicians will rise to power by advocating CCTV cameras in public toilets.

This, it seems, will stop nutjobs getting access to Jeeps, petrol and matches.

Which leads me to some rather large questions. Why is everyone assuming that these people have connections to Islamic terrorist groups? They might be Middle Eastern and they may well be mad but you don't need to be Osama bin Laden to get a Jeep Cherokee and drive it into a wall. I highly doubt that these people are connected to anyone important and I suspect that the "detailed forensic examination" of the Jeep will not turn up bin Laden's fingerprints on a box of matches.

Why was the hospital evacuated? Well, not the whole hospital, as the news seems to be saying when mentioning it, just A&E. "A suspect device" is a very broad term and I suspect that if they knew that it was an explosive they would just call it an explosive. if it was found on the terrorist, why not simply take it off him? Problem solved. In fact, why was this only discovered at the hospital? Wouldn't it make more sense to search him before taking him into a public place? Or on to the roads for that matter?

And terrorist prevention measures. As I said above, this will be used to champion them and get tougher laws passed for months ahead. Do they even work now? The Glasgow incident clearly wasn't stopped at all and the two car bombs in London were discovered purely by accident. One was spotted by ambulance personnel handling an injury nearby and the other was only discovered when they towed the frakking car. Truly, a victory for the boys at Special Branch.

Anyway, this will presumably carry on for a few more days and I may mention it again tomorrow but I think I've made my views clear. Overreacting to things like this helps no one and simply hinders us in the long run. As my father pointed out while watching the news, just over 60 years ago thousands were killed in the London blitz every week and it was dealt with in a sensible fashion by authorities and civilians alike, as far as was possible and could be expected. Today, no one but the perpetrators was injured and the whole country is in a panic.


A few other notes. The battery that I needed to get my LC 475 working came today everything worked fine once I slotted it in. Having acquired a NIC for it today, I finally got my Linux box connected to the internet, turning it into a viable computer, even if the start-up time does amaze Sam. As a final point, Doctor Who tonight was awesome. Fortunately, Erin was not, as she had earlier predicted, deafened by the excited shouts of myself and Sam as we watched it. I have some quickly drawn art for today's woodle but it was done too late for me to upload it so I'll do that tomorrow.

TWToday: Now in Eurovision

Sitting here, still playing Pokemon, Tuesday seems a very long way away and I could almost think that my exams were over.

But, sadly, they're not.

Ah, Eurovision. I'm told that there are those that actually take it seriously. I cannot for the life of me fathom why. Quite frankly, the only thing good about it is Terry Wogan's gently snarky commentary. The vast majority of the songs are unintelligible, and no, not the ones in foreign languages. As far as I can tell, the Irish entry involves something about selling hernias.

From here on in, I'm just going to be tossing out ideas as I watch this rubbish, for reasons I can't quite figure out, but which probably involve enjoying anger and mocking people who can't hear me.

Wogan has just pointed out how he would prefer the Finnish television commercials to the gap-filling, forced nonsense from "Krisse", who is apparently a "fan of Eurovision". She's hosting parts of it because she was approached in a totally non-set-up way in the audience.

His response to the French entry? "God, wasn't that awful." I really need to start listening to this guy's radio show.

The female Serbian contestant looks remarkably like this guy I know at school. However, the guy has more musical talent.

Ukrainians are apparently all 50s B-movie spacemen. On drugs. Who are ridiculously proud of their ability to count to three.

Ah, the UK. WTF?! Air hostesses?! Just because the song mentions flying, you don't have to be dressed as air hostesses, boys and girls. And mentioning a whole bunch of capital cities to fly to isn't winning you any points.

One Pokemon battle later (I lost to Sam) and it seems the voting has begun. Wogan reckons Ukraine is silly enough to win it, though he's never picked a winner yet.

I really hate that woman in the pink dress. She's just declared that the people behind her are wearing every kind of clothing ever worn by man. No, there not! None of them are wearing loinclothes! I don't see no togas! Most of them are in shirts and ties!!!

Well, Erin's just voted for the Ukraine. Four times. And it's already up on Youtube. I haven't decided if I can be bothered waiting for the results before editing and posting.

Rock cellists and a man in a bubble swallowing a fluorescent tube? That's Eurovision for you.

My god, I want to kill that woman in the pink dress. Wogan wants the guilty party responsible for her inclusion to be named. Should I really be agreeing so strongly with the quintessential old geezer of Britain?

9 to 10 scale! That just means you're a 9 if you're ugly, you stupid woman!!! And, no, I'm not explaining that.

The UK is currently the only country without any points.

Erin's sitting on my bed, hurling a plastic eyeball at my TV whenever some country doesn't give 12 points to the Ukraine.

Hey, Malta gave us some points! We're not total failures. Although, I have to say that we should be.

Oh, well. Serbia won. And nobody gives a crap.

And so, I shall leave you with these words of wisdom:

Scroll down for today's woodle.

Current events are scarier when they're going to become history

Wow. I've never really paid that much attention to elections before. I can't recall any Prime Minister other than Tony Blair. The only First Minister that's been around since politics of any kind appeared on my radar is Jack McConnell. I don't even know who my MP is, let alone my MSP and I honestly don't care who my MEP is.

But today was an election. And it was an important one for Britain, quite possibly more important than a general election. The Scottish National Party have come to power in Scotland, most likely by dint of the fact that their chief opposition was Labour. A bit of background on the SNP, simply as I've been researching some myself. They're not to be confused with the BNP, because they aren't crazy racists with a logo. They have numerous policies, but the only one anybody really cares about is their wish to make Scotland “independent”, cutting it off from the British government and the United Kingdom.

Now, it looks like it may still be very difficult to do that. They have a majority of only one seat and none of the other major parties are likely to want to form a coalition government with them. The Liberal Democrats have specifically said that they are against making Scotland independent and Gordon Brown, prime minister in waiting and a Scotsman, has said that he will not work with the SNP to break up Britain.

In a very rare event, I find myself in agreement with Gordon Brown. If I may be allowed to throw in some political commentary, breaking up Scotland would be disastrous. I know several people who have said that they would simply pack up and leave for England, or elsewhere, rather than stay in an independent Scotland facing inevitable tax hikes. And let's face it, the Scottish Parliament's greatest achievement so far has been making a building cost 400% of its original price and paying for it all with taxpayer's money. They are in no position to run a country.

I always think of myself as Scottish first and British second, when I consider nationality at all. I'm not a rampant “you must trust in our government at all times or you're a terrorist” kind of patriot. I really don't care how Scotland does in international sports, though it pisses me off when England succeeds at something and it dominates the news (I'm looking at you, rugby). I'm not much of a patriot at all, in fact. I don't like the idea of supporting “my country”. “My country” is a lump of rock where I happen to live. I may like some things about it and I may not care for the weather but I do believe that it will be disastrous for the people of Scotland for decades to come if the SNP get their way.

I may have more to say on this subject tomorrow or after the weekend, particularly as the situation develops. I also have something to say about the computer vote-counting cock-ups. For now, I have to sign off. Normally, I apologise for any overly serious post around now. I'm not going to do that.