Here are two excerpts:

"The 21-year-old man, who had chained himself to the railway near the city of Nancy, lost a leg after he was crushed by the train and died despite receiving emergency treatment at the scene...

"A spokesman from French nuclear energy firm COGEMA, which manages La Hague nuclear plant said the incident was 'a tragedy' and that officials organising the convoy had been 'extremely shocked'.

The word "tragedy" wasn't the first word that came to my mind upon reading this story. Actually, a smile appeared on my face before any particular words came to mind. Then a few minutes later, I had to chastise myself for smiling about a 21-year-old getting his legs torn off and bleeding to death.

Yes, it's a tragedy that someone's science-phobic, anti-progress philosophy led to his own death. But this guy endangered the lives of everyone in the train. People like he have no qualms putting other people's lives in danger for their own causes. Whether it's animal rights lunatics who burglarize testing labs, or environmentalists who bomb SUV dealerships, or Islamists who murder civilians, or voters who choose to outlaw gay marriage, what they all have in common is the willingness to sacrifice other people's lives for the sake of their values.

What happened to "live and let live"? Everyone seems to agree with this proverb, but too many people are content to make their own exceptions. There are times when I feel like making exceptions. But once you make your own "exception", that is, once you decide that your ends are more important than your means, you've thereby changed the nature of your ends. This goes for political causes as well as personal ones. The exception becomes the rule.