The reason for The London Riots has been suggested by Ms. Noonan, I think one of the finest observers of our global community. She wrote this opinion piece yesterday in the weekend Wall Street Journal. [You might hit the WSJ paywall]

The riots in Britain left some Americans shaken. In the affluence of the past 40 years, and with the rise of the jumbo jet, we became a nation of travelers. We have been to England, visited a lot of those neighborhoods. They were peaceful; now they're in flames. But something else raised our unease as we followed the story on TV and on the Net. I think there was a ping on the national radar. We saw something over there that in smaller ways we're starting to see over here.