An odd little item came through the 0xdeadbeef mailing list today. Read it here.

It wonders why a terrorist bombing (“out of frustration with the system”) makes the news while an environmentalist setting himself on fire doesn’t. Here’s a hint: a terrorist blows other people up.

The absence of an innate understanding of the differences between these two types of people makes me wonder. Does this rose-glassed urban crowd imagine a kind, gentle, misunderstood terrorist on a quest to save the planet? Or perhaps that more environmentalists should imitate big tough ecoterrorist hippies?

So tell me this: if a terrorist blows himself up and there is no one else hurt, was there a bang?