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Gotta love that stiff Brit upper lip. I am amazed at the resoluteness and the calm of Londoners. I am equally amazed at the silliness and misguidedness of many Americans. Our isolation has truly turned us into a bunch of worrywarts and wimps.

First point -- I am going to London in a few weeks, been planned for months. Staying reasonable close to some of Thursday's action. My resolution is doubled to do so and not to be intimidated. I may end up leaving a lot more money there than I was planning on just to show the terrorists they cannot do serious damage in this fashion.

Now I just want to share a little of the best and worst of what is being said. Let's start with the worst.

Hugh Hewitt is chronicling most of the truly bad stuff, so I will limit myself to just a couple.

I don't know who this is, but the story has got to qualify as the one of the wimpiest things, most self-centered things I have ever read

."Omarion [apparently he is an R&B singer -- but R&B died years ago, so I am confused] was in London during the tragic bombings that struck this morning," a statement by the singer's publicist AR PR Marketing, released hours after the bombings, said.

Making no mention of the fatalities or casualties of the blasts, the singer's statement concluded, "He would like his fans to pray that he has a safe trip and a safe return home. He appreciates your support."

The prize; however, goes to that most stuck-in-the-sixties pothead, Tom Hayden from HuffPo.

The lesson should be that Bush has put the West, including the American people, at life-and-death risk by going to war for fabrications. We will never be "safer" as long as we invade and occupy Iraq, prop up the Saudi dictators, and crawl towards only a token Palestinian state. We will be safe when we no longer forcibly occupy Muslim lands in the oil-driven search for dominance.

Before more attacks and more deaths, it is time for Congress to take the initiative from the Bush Administration and hold hearings on an exit strategy from Iraq. It is not acceptable for Donald Rumsfeld to scorn an exit strategy in favor of a victory strategy any longer.

It is time for the peace movement and congressional allies to show solidarity with the British people by getting to the bottom of the Downing Street Memorandums scandal which the smug American media continues to downplay.

It is time for Hayden to get a clue!

And now for some of the Best Stuff.

Religious leaders in London get it right.

Mr Clarke said: "The power of their statements is to state that faith is important in our society and that all faiths have respect for other faiths, and that by working together we can address the problems of society in an effective way."

He said they agreed "that the response should be to ensure that those who try and destroy our multi-faith community should themselves not be able to succeed."

Tony Blair's immediate reaction was right on the nose.

"It is through terrorism that the people who have committed this terrible act express their values and it is right at this moment that we demonstrate ours," said Mr Blair.

"They are trying to use the slaughter of innocent people to cow us, to frighten us out of doing the things that we want to do, of trying to stop us going about our business as normal as we are entitled to do.

"They should not and they must not succeed."

As was the president.

The contrast between what we've seen on the TV screens here, what's taken place in London and what's taking place here is incredibly vivid to me. On the one hand, we have people here who are working to alleviate poverty, to help rid the world of the pandemic of AIDS, working on ways to have a clean environment. And on the other hand, you've got people killing innocent people. And the contract couldn't be clearer between the intentions and the hearts of those of us who care deeply about human rights and human liberty, and those who kill ? those who have got such evil in their heart that they will take the lives of innocent folks.

Tunku Varadarajan writing in yesterday's OpinionJournal described Brit reaction well

I spent much of yesterday morning emailing friends in London--short, worried notes with "You OK??" in the subject line. "Drop me a line," I asked, "so I know you're all right."
The responses were all reassuring, and all marked by that distinctive unflappability that no visitor to Britain can fail to notice, however brief his sojourn. When I moved to London from New Delhi as a boy of 15, I was greatly impressed by the large, stark billboards I saw all over the city depicting a pint of ale. They said: "Take Courage." That was the name of the beer, of course, but I could not help thinking that this counsel was irrefutable proof of national fiber. Which, clearly, it was.

My friend Q.'s response to my note yesterday was a very British jewel: "Yes, tin helmet firmly affixed on bean, sandbags at the door, sticky tape on the windows, but the kettle is on and we'll soon have steaming mugs of sweet tea to hand. Don't panic!"

Adrian Warnock is typically understated.

London is recovering. The Underground website even lists a "normal service" on some lines this morning. Londoners are curiously underwhelmed. Most of the folks in my office didnt down tools and watch the coverage but quietly carried on their work and left a little early to try and get home. We have lived with the very real threat of this kind of thing for decades. Most of us have felt explosions more than once. As I explained in a post last night, one of my most overwhelming feelings is of gratitude that it wasnt worse.

But this photoblog, devoted to the people of the world telling the terrorists they are not afraid is THE winner! It is sometimes profane, but the message is clear and exactly right.