From bad to worse

The situation in the Middle East isn't getting any better. Since my friend is over there, I've been paying close attention to anything I see that happens in Turkey. Thursday evening, a car bomb went off in a McDonald's parking lot in Istanbul, the very city where he's staying. If I hadn't seen a recent blog entry from him, I'd be worried.

My Palestinian colleague (located here) was talking to me about this. She said that a bomb had gone off recently at some other place in Turkey, but she insists that it's safe. What a difference in perspective. We agreed that over here in the States, that kind of statement wouldn't be followed up with "but everything's fine." If bombs were going off here, all hell would break loose. The media would go nuts and show bomb footage and computerized reenactments and interviews with Bubbas on the street for weeks on end. It wouldn't be good.

The interesting thing about the McDonald's boming is that no one was injured, probably because the bombers called the restaurant and gave them 15 minutes to evacuate everyone. Not what I'd expect. Of course, it is quite possible that they just didn't like the new adult Happy Meals.