The world is changed... I feel it in the water... I feel it in the earth... I smell it in the air...

British police are not only carrying weapons, they are shooting suspects in the head.

Revoking extremists' citizenships, so unthinkable a year ago, is being used in France now.

While a couple of years ago French ban on veils in schools ignited fierce debate and threats from Islamists, Italy has banned face-covering veils even on the streets now, and it has gone almost unnoticed. Many Belgian cities have banned it too, with just as little noise.

Pakistan has kicked all the foreign students out of the religious schools.

British transport police is trageting certain ethnic groups, and is saying so openly.

Some of this is undoubtedly a healthy reaction to the state of the world and is a positive development, but all of this put together gives me a strong and unpleasant feeling of living in interesting times. Last time my interesting-times-meter was ticking so violently was in the late eighties.

A sad sign on interesting times is that when I read the article title "British, Italian Police Grill 21 Suspects" for a second there I took it literally.