I'll get back to the lighthearted drunken antics of my neighbors and me later, but there's something I just realized about the Beslan massacre. It's the operating theory now that one of the big bombs the terrorists had in the school went off accidentally, taking down the roof and forcing the Russians' hand. So as pandemonium reigned and the hostages broke for safety, most of the terrorists chose to stand their ground and shoot the fleeing children in the back as the Russian troops poured in. A few terrorists fled the school, but 27 were killed there.
That they would rather die than save themselves, as long as they could murder children in the meantime, is a mindset that I absolutely cannot comprehend. We are somehow supposed to understand their plight, to appreciate where they're coming from?
I have always looked at it like this:
If I could understand their plight, if I could find something in it about which to feel sympathetic or empathetic, and others in the world were similarly capable, then they would never need to resort to such monsterous, attention-grabbing methods. The fact that they see such actions as acceptable, even thinkable, just shows how far removed they are from being human.
They are dangerous animals at best, in need of being put down for the good of the world community.
hear, hear!