"Just a few months ago, Britain was all about Harry Potter and the royal wedding"

Britain’s riots seen as a reflection of ‘broke society’

LONDON – As the pictures of burning and looting tarnish Britain’s image around the world, the mostly young rioters and social analysts agree on one thing: This was an event waiting to happen.

"I’ll keep doing this every day until I get caught. When I get home, nothing is going to happen to me," a teenager laden with looted goods told a BBC reporter in Manchester in the early hours of Wednesday.

"The prisons are overcrowded. So what are they going to do?" he added for good measure.

Children as young as 10 were seen carrying off looted goods in plastic bags from shops in the northern city, laughing and joking as they threw the items in the air with delight before disappearing down side streets and alleyways to escape the police.

http://www.bostonherald.com/news/international/europe/view/20110810britains_riots_seen_as_a_reflection_of_broke_society/srvc=home&position=recent

Empires in decline are good at that sort of thing.

preparation for the Royal Wedding. Sharpshooters on roofs was the least of it.

on vacation this Friday. I am more worried about flying than the riots, but I still think about how helpless I would feel if I inadvertently got caught up in something with no way out and no real defense (the police are useless).

Some people have told me to cancel my trip, but I have made so many arrangements and have been looking forward to it for a long time. Anyway, as it looks for now, I am going, so I can report from the field. I am staying in Bloomsbury, near the British Museum, so I don't expect a lot of looting there, but the unpredictability of the whole thing is what worries me.

;-)

I mean, Harry Potter is fine, but the Royal Spawning Event?

Of course, here in Texas, all we get is Perry hotter. ;-)