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Choire has pictures from today. Go there now.

Nice to see that even during an international crisis, there are still those determined to get their daily share of porn. Ugh.

Just got an e-mail from my Dad. He’s writing from our home town of Lagrange, Indiana, which is just about as “middle-of-nowhere” as you can get. He says:

“You should have seen the gas stations around here yesterday. People were panicked and the cars were lined up 30 and 40 to a station. The Shell station in LaGrange pumped dry… Some of the stations started price gouging by raising the prices to any where from 4 to 6 dollars a gallon. I also
heard on the radio this morning that there was a fire in Topeka and the Life Care helicopter from the hospital was grounded and a little Amish girl died because they couldn’t get her to the hospital in time.”

Everybody’s affected. Everybody’s panicking. Those planes didn’t just hit the east coast. They hit America.

I’ve been listening to Capital FM all day today. (It’s the big “Top 40” station in London.) They’ve been pretty good about giving news updates. It’s their playlist that I’m having a problem with. They claim that they’re taking requests and only playing stuff that fits the listeners’ mood right now. So far I’ve heard Gabrielle about fourteen times (nothing out of the ordinary there), Michael Jackson’s “You Are Not Alone”, and that “You’re Makin’ it Hard For Me” song that was big in the States, like, five years ago (the one my mom calls “That Erection Song”.) What the hell? I hope to God that’s not the prevailing mood in the capital right now. They did just play “Everybody Hurts” though, and the DJ said it was the most requested song of the day. I suppose the others can just be attributed to weird people calling in.

*Trying to get back to normal*

I was excited to see that Amazon has a new Computer Store that sells Apple machines! Now whenever somebody tells me that Apple’s out of the question because they don’t know where to get one, I’ll have an answer.

Amazon’s accepting donations for the Red Cross. They’re waiving all the fees. Just go to it. I made my donation and then went back to refresh the page to see the total go up. It jumped a lot more than I pledged. It’s over $280,000. There’s a lot of people helping out.

Oh God. I just remembered that I’m supposed to be hosting a dinner party tonight for my friend eMan (the one who quit last week) and his two visiting American friends. Those poor kids. I’m pretty sure neither was from the east coast, but jeez. They don’t even know how they’re going to get home at this point. And now I’m preoccupied with the correct food to serve during an international crisis. Any ideas?

I forgot to mention this. Okay, I’m not saying that “public speaking” has anything to do with general competence in government officials, but the difference between George W. Bush and Tony Blair could not have been more marked last night. Bush seemed like he was floundering, like he couldn’t function without somebody whispering the words into his ear. I cringed every time he said “turrorism” or “Amurrica.” Blair, on the other hand, was both emotional and eloquent. Whatever else his faults, when he speaks you feel like he and his Cabinet are in control. Bush gave us generalities about “hunting those folks down”. Blair told us what he was doing to make us safe. I know which one I feel safer with as a leader.

According to the BBC, we remain on “high security alert”. I think most of the City buildings are open though. (Any word, Jann?) All the flight paths going into and coming out of Heathrow have been altered, which means whenever I look out the window the planes are going in completely the wrong direction. (Hammersmith isn’t far from the airport.) The security guards at my office — who normally just wave the regulars on through — have apparently been instructed to double-check everybody’s ID’s. I have no idea what that’s supposed to accomplish. (What would a terrorist want to do in our building? Download porn and warez on our T-1 connection?)

People are shocked here, but more at the extreme devastation than the shock of American vulnerability. British people (and Londoners in particular) have been living with the constant threat of terrorism for decades. There have been several attacks just in the past year (bombs at Hammersmith Bridge, BBC offices, pub in West London, etc.). When I first arrived here in ’98, I asked, “Why aren’t there any garbage cans on the Underground?” The straightforward answer: “Because the IRA figured out they’re a damn good place to hide explosives.” Once you’ve been here for a while, you realize that terrorist acts do happen in the Americanized “West.” We’re not immune to it. It’s just a shame everybody in America had to learn it the hard way.

(Brief moment of humor: Watching the news last night, Nick said we should spare a moment for the poor IRA guys who are inevitably sobbing into their pints and lamenting, “Look what they did! And we can’t even blow up the bloody Hammersmith Bridge.”)

I find the kneejerk racist reactions of many of my fellow Americans appalling. I live and work in a very multi-cultural environment. I know many Muslims and I don’t hold them up as representatives of their countries or religions. They, in turn, do not see me as the embodiment of America. We would be a lot better off if everybody else did the same.

It’s been so weird to be outside the country while this has happened. I had several people from the States contact me hours after the events asking whether I’d heard what had happened. Is it any wonder that the rest of the world makes jokes about America’s self-absorption? I’m, like, “What the hell do you think I’ve been doing all day? We have television. We have the bloody Internet. Everywhere outside America isn’t the goddamn Stone Age.” My entire office was clustered around the telly in the kitchen following it from the moment it happened. We probably knew about it before half of America did. I suppose it’s pretty natural to assume that since American media never carries stories about disasters in other countries, the same situation exists elsewhere. I’m happy to report that other nations aren’t so insulated.

This is one of my longest posts. I don’t know what else to say. As Snookums put it this morning when we were going our separate ways at work: “If America goes to war, we’re going to Australia.” I couldn’t have put it better myself. Get me the hell out of here.

Roger Ebert went into a movie screening at 8:30 in the morning yesterday and “walked out two hours later into a different world.” His wife and daughter were in New York City (they’re safe). He puts into words what a lot of people were feeling. He’s a good writer.