fire, fire

Confession: I have a twisted fascination with the Red Army Faction.

Fact: The Staatsbibliothek in Berlin has a fantastic collection of historical primary source material from the East/West era--perfect.

Myth (that I believed until recently): Left-wing terrorism is basically dead, so there's little to be learned from studying groups like the RAF.

The car arson in Berlin, left-wing terrorism or not, have given my floundering study abroad research project new life, simply because of the fact that many credible sources have rushed to blame the arson on left-wing terrorism. You don't blame something that doesn't exist.

(What I've learned from this incident and subsequent investigation: Left-wing terrorism isn't a big deal in the U.S., but Europe is quite a different story.)

Ladies and gentlemen, I have a project.