Tune in Sunday. The NRA’s CEO, Wayne Lapierre, will be on Meet the Press and NRA president, David Keene, will be on Face the Nation.

If you were watching MSNBC — and I hope you weren’t — the talking heads were all over Majority Leader Boehner for failing to pass his “Plan B” tax plan to avert the “fiscal cliff.”

Missing was any mention that both Harry Reid and President Obama had said they’d never pass Plan B anyway.

So, what’s the point? How was it that House Republicans failed yesterday? If Boehner had passed Plan B, would any of the MSNBC muppets have praised him? We all know they wouldn’t have.

Howard Dean — to his credit — didn’t agree with Ed Schultz and actually said he thinks going over the cliff is the best thing for the economy. Salon’s Joan Walsh quickly criticized the governor on Twitter for daring to speak honestly on the dangers of continued huge budget deficits:

We have a spending problem in this country and the GOP and the president agreed to this sequestration deal knowing that this “cliff” could be a likely outcome. Well, you get what you voted for. Bring on the cliff!

Details here.

Many times. You can search the White House website yourself, but here’s just one example. From July 31, 2012:

Q    Given the fact that the President talked — spoke at the Urban League about the importance of having a dialogue, about cracking down on gun violence, has he moved any closer to deciding whether to hold any sort of gun policy event to open a dialogue about this any further?

MR. CARNEY:  Well, I have no announcements to make in terms of his schedule or speaking plans.  But I would point you to the fact that he gave that address and to the fact that he spoke about the issue of violence at a higher level, that this is not just an issue of specific horrific incidents like that one that took place in Aurora, but the fact that we have levels of violence that are too high in many cities across this country, and that we need to address the problem from a variety of directions — not just through legislation that relates to guns but through action that we could take and are taking in assisting local law enforcement, local government; action that we can take to ensure that teenagers who might be prone to or vulnerable to falling into gangs are instead in school or have summer programs that keep them off the streets.  These are the kinds of things that are part of a broader approach to dealing with violence.

Q    Well, I guess, what’s the next step?  In addition to speaking about it at the union [sic] league, what’s he –

MR. CARNEY:  Well, I don’t have — the President has directed his Department of Justice to continue to take action, common-sense action that makes enforcement of our existing laws more effective, prevents criminals and others who should not have weapons from getting them.  And he will, I’m sure, continue to hold the position that he talked about at the Urban League and talked about in Tucson and talked about in the op-ed that he wrote about the broader issues of violence and how we should address it. 

That’s what you call a “punt.”

One of Joe Biden’s mandates as he chairs this committee to address gun violence in America is to look at the affect that pop culture has on gun ownership.

Violent video games like Grand Theft Auto or Call of Duty will likely get a fair amount of attention, but what probably won’t be discussed is that Americans really like guns in their entertainment.

We like them in our sitcoms, like this episode of ABC’s hit Modern Family with Claire gets caught faking going to a yoga class and chooses to relax at a gun range instead. . .

. . .and we like guns in our music. Not just hip-hop or rap, but in most genres. Here are the lyrics to Country star Miranda Lambert’s platinum-selling single, Gunpowder & Lead, about a woman whose abusive boyfriend is about to be released from prison. . .

County road 233, under my feet
Nothin’ on this white rock but little ole me
I’ve got two miles ‘til, he makes bail
And if I’m right we’re headed straight for hell

I’m goin’ home, gonna load my shotgun
Wait by the door and light a cigarette
If he wants a fight well now he’s got one
And he ain’t seen me crazy yet
He slapped my face and he shook me like a rag doll
Don’t that sound like a real man
I’m going to show him what a little girls are made of
Gunpowder and lead

. . .Gunpowder & Lead ends with a shotgun blast. Justice served.

And we certainly like guns and violence in our movies. Selected films from the Top 25 grossing movies of 2012 (Title/Total Gross $):

The Avengers/$623,357,910

The Dark Knight Rises/$448,139,099

The Hunger Games/$408,010,692

21 Jump Street/$138,447,667

Taken 2/$138,202,358

Safe House/$126,181,630

The Bourne Legacy/$113,203,870

That’s close to $2 billion in ticket sales to watch what are in effect movies with guns and violence in nearly every scene.

Let’s not be hypocritical: we’re a country that likes our guns. Joe Biden, Diane Feinstein, Harry Reid, Joe Manchin, Kirsten Gillibrand, etc. are just a few of the Democratic politicians who highlighted their gun ownership in order to get elected and who are now calling for new restrictions. These elected officials will say that Newtwon made everything different, but that’s a lie. Columbine, Wisconsin, Gabby Giffords, Aurora, and all the other shootings were somehow not enough to change their minds? There’s the equivalent of a mass killing every month in the city of Chicago. Four years of gun homicides in the president’s hometown didn’t catch the his attention during his first term?

Piers Morgan of CNN has stood out in his anti-gun crusade, and he’s taken to making stuff up to justify his position. He not only labels the civilian AR-15 an assault rifle – it is not, by definition — but he’s throwing around phrases like “military-grade rifle,” “murder weapon” and even “literally weapons of mass destruction.” Morgan’s guest last night, Deepak Chopra said he’d question the “sanity” of anyone who even purchased a rifle like the AR-15.

Well, for starters Deepak, the AR-15 is fast becoming a popular hunting rifle, as well as the rifle of choice for gun owners of all stripes because of its many “customizable features.” All these people need to have their sanity questioned? I think not.

Inventing facts to generate phony arguments. Who’s the crazy one here?

Another tough question from Tapper:    

TAPPER: It seems to a lot of observers that you made the political calculation in 2008, in your first term and in 2012 not to talk about gun violence. You had your position on renewing the ban on semiautomatic rifles that then Senator Biden put into place, but you didn’t do much about it. This is not the first issue — the first incident of horrific gun violence of your four years. Where have you been?

PRESIDENT OBAMA: Well, here’s where I’ve been, Jake. I’ve been president of the United States, dealing with the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, an auto industry on the verge of collapse, two wars. I don’t think I’ve been on vacation.

And so, you know, I think all of us have to do some reflection on how we prioritize what we do here in Washington. And as I said on Sunday, you know, this should be a wake-up call for all of us to say that if we are not getting right the need to keep our children safe, then nothing else matters. And it’s my commitment to make sure that, that we do everything we can to keep our children safe. A lot of things go — are involved in that, Jake. So making sure they’ve got decent health care and making sure they’ve got a good education, making sure that their parents have jobs — those are all relevant as well. Those aren’t just sort of side issues. But there’s no doubt that this has to be a central issue. And that’s exactly why I’m confident that Joe is going to take this so seriously over the next couple months.

Tapper is right, of course. Take at look at the president’s website on the “Sportsmen for Obama” page:

And that is all there is on this “central issue.”

And let’s not forget President Obama’s op-ed after the Rep. Giffords shooting in 2011 when he wrote:

Now, like the majority of Americans, I believe that the Second Amendment guarantees an individual right to bear arms. And the courts have settled that as the law of the land. In this country, we have a strong tradition of gun ownership that’s handed from generation to generation. Hunting and shooting are part of our national heritage.

It will be interesting to see what exactly the president proposes over the coming weeks. Will we see the president that agrees with Justice Scalia in Heller or a president who has “evolved” on his reading of the Second Amendment?

Announced this morning:

New York Post:

Richard Engel, NBC’s award-winning chief foreign correspondent, was kidnapped in war-torn Syria and held for five days before being released unharmed, the network announced today.

The network said early today that Engel and his crew had been kidnapped by “an unknown group,” but that are currently out of the country.

A Turkish media report yesterday that Engel and Aziz Akyavas, a Turkish journalist working with Engel, had been missing since last week quickly went viral and fueled fears they had been killed in the fighting.

Engel, 39, is fluent in Arabic and covered Iraq during the country’s last two wars and served as NBC’s Mideast bureau chief before he was promoted to top foreign correspondent.

The rest here.

Gawker:

NBC News chief foreign correspondent Richard Engel has gone missing in Syria, according to Turkish news reports. The reports also say that Aziz Akyavaş, a Turkish journalist working with Engel, is unaccounted for. NBC News has been successfully keeping Engel’s status subject to a news blackout—one to which Gawker agreed until now—for at least the past 24 hours.

Turkish newspaper Hurriyet is reporting that Engel and Akyavaş were last known to be in Syria and haven’t been in contact with NBC News since Thursday morning. The news has been reported widely in the Turkish press over the past 24 hours, including by Turkish news channel NTV, which presents itself as an international partner of MSNBC. It’s also been widely distributed on Twitter.

But NBC News has been asking every reporter who inquires about the report to participate in a news blackout. It has also taken to Twitter and asked people who repeated the Turkish reports there to take them down. You can see here a screengrab of the Twitter account @NBCComm asking a Twitter user who had mentioned the reports to urgently call a cell phone number (that account has since been taken down).

NBC News declined to comment for the record about Engel’s whereabouts, but asked Gawker not to report what it characterized as “rumors” about Engel’s current status.

Updates to follow.

Joe Scarborough declared this morning on MSNBC that Newtown has changed his thinking on guns. Video here. An excerpt:

“I knew that day that the ideologies of my past career were no longer relevant to the future that I want, that I demand for my children. Friday changed everything. It must change everything. We all must begin anew and demand that Washington’s old way of doing business is no longer acceptable. Entertainment moguls don’t have an absolute right to glorify murder while spreading mayhem in young minds across America. And our Bill of Rights does not guarantee gun manufacturers the absolute right to sell military-style, high-caliber, semi-automatic combat assault rifles with high-capacity magazines to whoever the hell they want.

It is time for Congress to put children before deadly dogmas. It’s time for politicians to start focusing more on protecting our schoolyards than putting together their next fundraiser. It’s time for Washington to stop trying to win endless wars overseas when we’re losing the war at home … For the sake of my four children and yours, I choose life and I choose change.”

Great. Not only does Scarborough think we need new gun laws, but censorship as well? Since Comcast owns NBC, maybe Scarborough can voice his distaste that a great percentage of his paycheck comes from broadcasting the very movies he now feels are culpable in Friday’s massacre.

But why — all of a sudden — does Newtown change Scarborough thinking? Scarborough was in Congress from 1995 until 2001. The Columbine killings happened in 1999. That didn’t change his mind? The shooting of Rep. Giffords in 2011 didn’t change his mind? The Aurora, Colo. and Oak Creek, Wis. killings this year didn’t change his mind?

If Scarborough wants to change sides, fine with me. But is there any evidence movies played a part in Lanza’s attack? No. And it’s reported Lanza stole the guns from his mother, who unless more information comes to light, would have passed even the most extreme of background checks. Even if Lanza’s mother didn’t have the AR-15, Lanza would have killed just as many kids with the pistols he took.

I’m all for a conversation on guns, but the “do something” caucus has yet to propose a single idea that would have prevented yesterday. But I’m listening.

I thought, for the most part, the president gave a great speech last night. Right up until he used the venue to hint at legislation to come.

I get frustrated when people complain that politicians tend to politicize stuff like Newtown. That’s what they do. It’s there literal job description. But Obama’s politicization of the Newtown tragedy stood out not for its inappropriateness, but for its lack of substance. This line stood out:

In the coming weeks, I will use whatever power this office holds to engage my fellow citizens — from law enforcement to mental health professionals to parents and educators — in an effort aimed at preventing more tragedies like this.

I’ve seen this quote shortened many times on Twitter where “to engage my fellow citizens” is left out. The president didn’t say anything more than he’s ready to be the cheerleader-in-chief for more gun regulations.

I guess this means new gun legislation will come from the Senate, led by Harry Reid — who is no enemy of the NRA. From 2010:

In March, Mr. Reid helped open the Clark County Shooting Park, firing a shotgun and hitting two clay birds as the crowd cheered, according to press reports. Mr. Reid helped obtain $61 million for the new facility, and he was accompanied at the opening by NRA executive vice president Wayne LaPierre.

“I know how you worked,” Mr. LaPierre told Reid at the event, according to the Las Vegas Sun. Mr. LaPierre added that the park “would not have opened without the work of Sen. Reid.”

And although the NRA didn’t endorse Reid. . .

Mr. Reid’s campaign sought to put the best face on the decision, noting that the group has donated $4,950 to Mr. Reid’s campaign and suggesting it was significant that the NRA had even flirted with endorsing him.

If Dems and their supporters in the media are really serious about gun control, the first step would be getting rid of Harry Reid as Majority Leader, no?

There’s another issue here ignored by the MSM and that’s one of why Newtown gets more coverage than the daily carnage in the president’s hometown of Chicago? There have been 14 murders in the last seven days, 484 to date in 2012.

If we’re going to have any sort of worthwhile conversation on guns in America, we need to start with Chicago and ask why a city with some of the most restrictive gun control laws in the country is a war zone.

An interesting business model change for The Guardian. Will other media outlets that rely on Facebook readers (Washington Post, for example) follow?

From Monday 17 December we will begin directing users who click on a Guardian link within Facebook straight to our website to view articles

In September 2011 the Guardian unveiled a new Facebook app to coincide with the launch of Open Graph at Facebook’s f8 developer event.

As part of a wider integration with Facebook’s Open Graph, the Guardian Facebook app was an experimental social news experience that aimed to make it easier for Facebook users to discover Guardian content via their friends. The app enabled Facebook users to read and experience Guardian content within Facebook.com rather than being taken to guardian.co.uk. As a user read within the app, this action would also be highlighted on their friends’ news feeds as well as in the ticker and on their own timeline (although users could remove shares of a particular story if they chose to do so).

For us, we were interested in understanding whether readers would engage with our content in a different way. No additional editorial effort was invested in any aspect of the app so, in effect, the performance was entirely social.

Implementing the reading experience within Facebook was also a conscious decision to give us space to experiment away from the main Guardian website.

In the months following the launch, we saw tremendous volumes of traffic being generated by the app. Over 12 million Facebook users have authenticated the Guardian Facebook app since launch, and at its peak (April 2012) we were seeing 6 million active monthly users.

The Facebook app has given us access to a hard to reach audience and has helped us learn much more about our new and existing readership which, as a digital first organisation, is crucial.

The app has also played an integral role in helping us understand best practice for the social discovery of news, and a few months ago the app enabled us to implement social login on Guardian.co.uk, which means that users can now register on the Guardian using their Facebook details for a more social experience on the site.

In light of this, we have decided to switch our focus to creating more social participation for our users on our own core properties, beginning with guardian.co.uk.

Forbes has the details — for free — at Forbes.com.

Via today’s New York Times:

WASHINGTON — Even before its official release, “Zero Dark Thirty,” the new movie about the hunt for Osama bin Laden, has become a national Rorschach test on the divisive subject of torture.

The film’s unflinching portrayal of the Central Intelligence Agency’s brutal interrogation of Al Qaeda prisoners hews close to the official record, offering a gruesome sampling of methods like the near-drowning of waterboarding.

What has already divided the critics, journalists and activists who have watched early screenings is a more subtle issue: the suggestion that the calculated infliction of pain and fear, graphically shown in the first 45 minutes of the film, may have produced useful early clues in the quest to find the terrorist leader, who was killed in May 2011.

Such a claim is anathema to outspoken critics of the Bush administration’s decision in 2002 to resort to methods that the United States had for decades shunned as illegal. And a new, 6,000-page report on C.I.A. interrogations by the Senate Intelligence Committee, based on a study of some six million pages of agency documents, finds that brutal treatment was not “a central component” in finding Bin Laden, said the committee’s chairwoman, Senator Dianne Feinstein, Democrat of California.

But the report, which the committee will decide whether to approve on Thursday, remains classified, with little likelihood that any of it will be public for months. It has already become fodder for a partisan fight, with Republicans denouncing it as flawed and incomplete. Nearly a decade after the C.I.A. is last known to have waterboarded a suspect, the American argument over torture remains unresolved and has lost little of its emotional potency, whether the spark is a blockbuster movie or a Senate report.

According to intelligence officials and the incomplete public record, detainees who endured varying degrees of physical force did tell their interrogators some truths, as well as half-truths and outright lies. What remains unprovable is whether — as F.B.I. agents with long experience questioning terrorists have argued — the same or better information might have been obtained without taking the morally and politically treacherous path the C.I.A. chose.

Mark Boal, the screenwriter of “Zero Dark Thirty,” which is directed by Kathryn Bigelow, said in an interview Wednesday that the movie was no documentary, though it is based on extensive research.

And in other news, Zero Dark Thirty was nominated for a Golden Globe in the best picture category. Here’s hoping it wins so that even more of an audience can see that enhanced interrogation did provide information valuable in fighting the terrorists.

The rest from the NYT here.

The headline of their “News Analysis” today by Helene Cooper: U.N. Ambassador Questioned on U.S. Role in Congo Violence

An excerpt:

Almost two decades after the Clinton administration failed to intervene in the genocide in Rwanda, the United States is coming under harsh criticism for not moving forcefully in another African crisis marked by atrocities and brutal killings, this time in Rwanda’s neighbor, the Democratic Republic of Congo.

While President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton have taken some of the blame, critics of the Obama administration’s Africa policy have focused on the role of Susan E. Rice, the United States ambassador to the United Nations and a leading contender to succeed Mrs. Clinton, in the administration’s failure to take action against the country they see as a major cause of the Congolese crisis, Rwanda.

Specifically, these critics — who include officials of human rights organizations and United Nations diplomats — say the administration has not put enough pressure on Rwanda’s president, Paul Kagame, to end his support for the rebel movement whose recent capture of the strategic city of Goma in Congo set off a national crisis in a country that has already lost more than three million people in more than a decade of fighting. Rwanda’s support is seen as vital to the rebel group, known as M23.

Support for Mr. Kagame and the Rwandan government has been a matter of American foreign policy since he led the Tutsi-dominated Rwandan Patriotic Front to victory over the incumbent government in July 1994, effectively ending the Rwandan genocide. But according to rights organizations and diplomats at the United Nations, Ms. Rice has been at the forefront of trying to shield the Rwandan government, and Mr. Kagame in particular, from international censure, even as several United Nations reports have laid the blame for the violence in Congo at Mr. Kagame’s door.

A senior administration official said Saturday that Ms. Rice was not freelancing, and that the American policy toward Rwanda and Congo was to work with all the countries in the area for a negotiated settlement to the conflict.

This criticism of Susan Rice is based solely on her race and gender, obviously. And these unnamed U.N. diplomats and officials at human rights organizations . . . why is the Times granting anonymity to such vile bigots?

The editors today correctly write about the growing Islamic threat in Mali, but their conclusion to the editorial leaves one wondering if this is their first time covering the United Nations:

Negotiations, which began this month, are certainly worth a try. But it’s also worth bearing in mind what is happening while this process drags on. As a Malian minister told the Security Council, “there are floggings, amputation of limbs, summary executions, children forced to become soldiers, rapes, stoning, looting and the destruction of cultural and historical sites.” Perhaps the diplomats in Turtle Bay can conclude it’s prudent to allow such atrocities to continue for another 10 or 12 months. But morality as well as common sense suggests that intervention must come sooner.

The Post can editorialize all it wants about the U.N., but that won’t make the diplomatas a) move any faster or b) be able to do anything to prevent the genocide once they do decide to authorize intervention.

Bob Costas took a break from social commentary during last night’s NBC Sunday Night Football game and let former coach Tony Dungy handle the discussion of Dallas Cowboys’ Josh Brent and his arrest for “intoxication manslaughter.” Brent crashed his car on Saturday. Passenger and teammate Jerry Brown would later die from injuries sustained in the crash.

Of course, alcohol sponsorship and the NFL go hand-in-hand. Here’s a screenshot of NBC’s segment “Cold Hard Facts” presented by Coors Light, including a 30-second ad for Coors Light prior to the NBC Sports segment:

Do Tony Dungy, Bob Costas, et al. care enough about the issue of alcohol in America to ask NBC to turn down advertising dollars from the beer industry?

Moore does bring up one good point, though. How did President Obama win Michigan by so much and then this law gets passed? He blames gerrymandering, but that can’t be it. Stabenow won her Senate seat by 20 points, yet the state’s Supreme Court stayed conservative.

Even the pre-vote polling on right-to-work was screwy:

The EPIC-MRA poll says 54 percent of Michigan voters generally favor right-to-work laws, with 40 percent opposed. But when asked how they feel about Michigan becoming a right-to-work state, 47 percent are in favor and 46 percent are opposed.

In summary, Michigan wants a liberal president and senators, a conservative governor (18 point win in 2010) and court, and likes right-to-work laws, just not in their state as much as they like them in others.

And here’s an interesting analysis from Tom Walsh in the Detroit Free Press that blames Governor Snyder’s frustration with labor union “dithering” on state reforms over the past two years as the reason for his change of heart on the importance of a right-to-work law.

Michael Moore’s anger is on display here via his Twitter feed, but I think his real target should be the voters in Michigan who don’t conform to his view of the world:

There’s a Fox News report out today of total chaos at the FEMA staging area at Ft. Dix, New Jersey, in the days following hurricane Sandy. An excerpt:

Hurry up and wait.

That’s what first responders were left to do after being deployed by FEMA to assist in the storm-ravaged areas in the initial days after superstorm Sandy, FoxNews.com has learned. A FEMA worker who spoke to FoxNews.com described a chaotic scene at New Jersey’s Fort Dix, where emergency workers arrived as the storm bore down on the Atlantic Coast. The worker said officials at the staging area were unprepared and told the incoming responders there was nothing for them to do for nearly four days.

“They told us to hurry, hurry, hurry,” the worker, who works at the agency’s headquarters in Washington and volunteered to deploy for the storm recovery effort. “We rushed to Fort Dix, only to find out that our liaison didn’t even know we were coming.”

“The regional coordinator even said to us, ‘I don’t know why you were rushed here because we don’t need you,’” said the worker, who spoke out of frustration with the lack of planning and coordination following the devastating storm.

Hurry up and wait.

That’s what first responders were left to do after being deployed by FEMA to assist in the storm-ravaged areas in the initial days after superstorm Sandy, FoxNews.com has learned. A FEMA worker who spoke to FoxNews.com described a chaotic scene at New Jersey’s Fort Dix, where emergency workers arrived as the storm bore down on the Atlantic Coast. The worker said officials at the staging area were unprepared and told the incoming responders there was nothing for them to do for nearly four days.

“They told us to hurry, hurry, hurry,” the worker, who works at the agency’s headquarters in Washington and volunteered to deploy for the storm recovery effort. “We rushed to Fort Dix, only to find out that our liaison didn’t even know we were coming.”

“The regional coordinator even said to us, ‘I don’t know why you were rushed here because we don’t need you,’” said the worker, who spoke out of frustration with the lack of planning and coordination following the devastating storm.

The whole thing here.

Now compare that to coverage of Katrina. Michael Brown, along with President Bush, were targets from the start.

And there’s no media outrage in the aftermath of Sandy. Stories of FEMA discriminating against victims, vacant hotel rooms, refusal to provide trailers, and general bureaucratic nightmares go unreported.

I guess just stick it in the “if this were George Bush” file.

But there’s something else to consider as we hear MSM stories of the dysfunction in D.C., etc. Maybe if reporters actually did their jobs and didn’t give administrations a pass for partisan reasons, things might get fixed. Here’s a story the New York Times, et al. might consider: How could New Jersey, New York State and New York City be so woefully unprepared for Sandy just one year after hurricane Irene and billions of dollars of DHS money spent since 9/11 to prepare the area for a major emergency?

This is an amazing account of December 7, 1941 — published for the first time in today’s Washington Post.

The opener:

On Dec. 7, 1941, when Japanese planes attacked Pearl Harbor, I was working as a reporter for the Hono­lulu Star-Bulletin. After a week of war, I wrote a story directed at Hawaii’s women; I thought it would be useful for them to know what I had seen. It might help prepare them for what lay ahead. But my editors thought the graphic content would be too upsetting for readers and decided not to run my article. It appears here for the first time.

For seven ghastly, confused days, we have been at war. To the women of Hawaii, it has meant a total disruption of home life, a sudden acclimation to blackout nights, terrifying rumors, fear of the unknown as planes drone overhead and lorries shriek through the streets.

The seven days may stretch to seven years, and the women of Hawaii will have to accept a new routine of living. It is time, now, after the initial confusion and terror have subsided, to sum up the events of the past week, to make plans for the future.

It would be well, perhaps, to review the events of the past seven days and not minimize the horror, to better prepare for what may come again.

I have a story to tell, as a reporter, that I think the women of Hawaii should hear. I tell it because I think it may help other women in the struggle, so they will not take the past events lightly.

I reported for work immediately on Sunday morning when the first news — Oahu is being attacked — crackled over the radio, sandwiched in a church program.

Like the rest of Hawaii, I refused to believe it. All along the sunny road to town were people just coming out of church, dogs lazy in the driveways, mynas in noisy convention.

Then, from the neighborhood called Punchbowl, I saw a formation of black planes diving straight into the ocean off Pearl Harbor. The blue sky was punctured with anti-aircraft smoke puffs. Suddenly, there was a sharp whistling sound, almost over my shoulder, and below, down on School Street. I saw a rooftop fly into the air like a pasteboard movie set.

For the first time, I felt that numb terror that all of London has known for months. It is the terror of not being able to do anything but fall on your stomach and hope the bomb won’t land on you. It’s the helplessness and terror of sudden visions of a ripping sensation in your back, shrapnel coursing through your chest, total blackness, maybe death.

The rest here.