Explosions at the Boston Marathon 1105
Reports are coming in that the headquarters at the Boston Marathon have been locked down after two explosions were reported near the finish line. According to reports "dozens of people have been seriously injured." CNN has live coverage. Google has a Person Finder up for Boston.
Update: The Boston Police Dept. says 2 people have died and 23 are injured. News conference scheduled for 4:30 ET.
Update: The Boston Police Dept. says 2 people have died and 23 are injured. News conference scheduled for 4:30 ET.
On TV now (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:On TV now (Score:5, Funny)
What is this wait and see you're talking about? Let's bomb some country and then ask the questions! It worked last time didn't ti?
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
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As a person living in Nebraska I would be staunchly opposed to this.
So would StratCom.
Re:On TV now (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Jumping to conclusions (Score:4, Informative)
Whoosh!
Re:On TV now (Score:5, Insightful)
Reported third device found - gas line explosion sounds improbable especially considering the timing...
Re: (Score:3)
Um, from the 9/11 commission report:
Boarding the Flights
Boston: American 11 and United 175. Atta and Omari boarded a 6:00 A.M. flight from Portland to Boston's Logan International Airport.1
Re:On TV now (Score:5, Insightful)
Is this really something that Boston deserves to be singled out for? It seems to me that the 9/11 terrorists probably could have gotten through security at just about any airport in the US. And look what happened afterwards: how long did it take them to just do the most sensible thing to prevent these hijackings, something they somehow never thought of doing before: installing locking doors for the cockpits, so that no one can enter. Even now, we still have ridiculously expensive and ineffective security measures (the TSA), despite all kinds of evidence that it isn't working.
And Boston isn't the only place with shitty infrastructure; that condition exists all over the country.
Don't blame Boston for incompetence and corruption: blame the USA. Blaming Boston for the USA's problems is like blaming your chubby hand for your health problems when you're 200 pounds overweight.
Re:On TV now (Score:5, Informative)
It would be awfully coincidental. It's Patriot's Day in MA (and ME) and it happened right where lots of people are and lots of cameras (terrorists love bodies and media attention).
Any other day, anywhere else, sure, maybe it's just a gas line.
By the way, Boston Police just released some info. 2 confirmed dead, 22 wounded.
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Re:slashdot? (Score:5, Insightful)
I usually disagree with the stooges who ask why stuff of legal or societal interest is on slashdot, but why is this on slashdot?
News for nerds, stuff that matters.
Good chance that this is stuff that matters.
Re:slashdot? (Score:5, Funny)
Just to follow up:
If it's a terrorist attack, then it's stuff that matters.
If it's an exploding gas line then it's new for nerds.
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If it was an exploding gas line, police probably wouldn't have already found several more unexploded bombs.
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It's stuff that matters to me and I'm in Romania. it's important because it is likely to affect much more than a few Bostonians (Bostonese?).
Re:On TV now (Score:4, Funny)
Re:On TV now (Score:5, Insightful)
Aren't there 17 explosions in Iraq every Monday?
Re:On TV now (Score:5, Informative)
With all due respect to the victims and their families and friends - this isn't world news. In quite a few parts of the world, not just Iraq and Afghanistan, that's a small note somewhere on page 5 of the local newspaper.
It seems the world disagrees with you. This are all page one stories at sites that span the world.
Germany - USA: Explosionen beim Boston-Marathon - drei Tote, hundert Verletzte [spiegel.de]
Russia , (Act of terrorism committed in the U.S., numerous victims reported [pravda.ru]
Australia - US on alert after blasts shatter Boston Marathon killing 3, wounding 140 [theaustralian.com.au]
India - Boston Marathon bombing kills 3, injures over 130 [indiatimes.com]
Argentina - Bombs kill 3 people, wound more than 100 at Boston Marathon [buenosairesherald.com]
United Arab Emirates - Boston Marathon: 3 killed, more than 140 injured as 2 bombs explode near finish line [emirates247.com]
South Africa - Boston terror attack: Three killed, 100 injured [mg.co.za]
Japan - 3 dead, more than 110 hurt after two bombs explode near Boston Marathon finish line [japantoday.com]
So it's not news-worthy for the body count and not for the fact that there was a bomb or two.
Actually it is newsworthy, for both reasons. Mass casualty events tend to be that way. Last I heard the number of bombs was 5-7.
And, most importantly and most disgustingly, we are still thinking in tribal norms. Our own dead and wounded are more important than the foreign ones.
Every family looks after its own first, as does every country. But as to tribes - there aren't really any tribes in the West anymore, none that function anyway. (Were the last the Scotts?) You might try that line of thinking on people from parts of the world that actually do have functioning tribes, such as the Middle East, or Africa. Your disgust will probably be taken as evidence of being crazy. It wouldn't even be a question to them - of course you look after the tribe first, it is a matter of survival. If you can convince the Arabs that making peace with the Jews is preferable to killing them, you might have a chance a reducing tribalism, but I doubt you can eliminate it.
Live feed of the news (Score:5, Informative)
Well, crap (Score:5, Insightful)
I just felt a tremor in the force, like the Bill of Rights being stripped from hundreds of millions of Americans...
Re:Well, crap (Score:5, Informative)
BTW, I really am sorry for the victims, fwiw.
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Re:Well, crap (Score:5, Funny)
TSA decrees that you have to take your shoes off to go to the Boston Marathon now.
Re:Well, crap (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Well, crap (Score:5, Funny)
And only one 3.4 oz bottle of water per runner
The TSA Principle (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Well, crap (Score:5, Insightful)
I just felt a tremor in the force, like the Bill of Rights being stripped from hundreds of millions of Americans...
Bingo. Never let a good tragedy go to waste.
Wrong quote (Score:5, Insightful)
http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/r/rahmemanue409199.html [brainyquote.com]
"You never let a serious crisis go to waste. And what I mean by that it's an opportunity to do things you think you could not do before." -Rahm Emanuel
Former aid to President Obama and current mayor of Chicago which is undergoing major budgetary and violent crime crisises as we speak.
Re:Well, crap (Score:5, Interesting)
It's call the Shock Doctrine.
There's even a book about it (called the Shock Doctrine):
http://www.amazon.com/The-Shock-Doctrine-Disaster-Capitalism/dp/0312427999 [amazon.com]
From the Editorial Review:
Naomi Klein's The Shock Doctrine advances a truly unnerving argument: historically, while people were reeling from natural disasters, wars and economic upheavals, savvy politicians and industry leaders nefariously implemented policies that would never have passed during less muddled times. As Klein demonstrates, this reprehensible game of bait-and-switch isn't just some relic from the bad old days. It's alive and well in contemporary society, and coming soon to a disaster area near you.
This is why we have the Department of Homeland Security and the Patriot Act.
Now then... (Score:5, Insightful)
Patriot's Day (Score:5, Informative)
For those that are not from the area.
We have reports of people with missing limbs. happened near the Boston Public Library. Scary shit.
Explosions (Score:5, Insightful)
Mmmm...
I wonder what other parts of the constitution they will rip up to protect us from explosions?
-Hack
Isn't it sad? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Isn't it sad? (Score:5, Insightful)
Every rational person had that exact sequence of thoughts.
Re:Isn't it sad? (Score:5, Insightful)
Isn't it sad that the first thought I have after, "those poor people, I hope they're OK!", is, " Oh, great, *now* what civil rights is the US government going to shit all over?"
Followed by "I wonder if they - the government - was somehow behind this." Not themselves, not directly, but involved. Perhaps prompting and arming some stupid schmuck in order to entrap him for terrorism, and not catching him in time. Or turning a blind eye to foreign operatives so they could make a dramatic arrest to further some political goal.
Because while I don't believe most politicians or government employees are so corrupt and disloyal as to let an attack pass on American soil, I increasingly am of the opinion those officials aren't taking a long-enough view to see how their individual actions may affect the nation in the long run. Too often they are so focused on their immediate goal - be it the reduction of crime through semi-legal tactics, ensuring one's agency's budget next year by misallocating funds this year, or improving one's standings in the polls - that they sacrifice the bigger picture, and people are getting hurt because of it. They overlook little evils to pursue what they hope is a good goal, forgetting that not only don't the ends don't justify the means; but that the end itself can become unexpectedly corrupted by those methods.
So, sad as it is, I hope it is just some nut-job who got his hands on too much explosives, but the increasingly cynical part of me worries that it's not. Because the former is just some dumb idiot who thinks this is going to convert people to his cause, while the latter is evidence of just how fucked up our society is.
Either way, the media is going to have a field day with this. It's better than Christmas for them.
I'm sorry. I'm not in the cheeriest of moods today, and then something like this happens that makes me see the worst in the world.
I hope the families are okay.
Precedent for arming stupd schmuks (Score:5, Informative)
Perhaps prompting and arming some stupid schmuck in order to entrap him for terrorism
Or perhaps something worse, like this: "[Operation] Fast & Furious involved uncontrolled deliveries — of thousands of weapons. It was an utterly heedless program in which the feds allowed these guns to be sold to straw purchasers — often leaning on reluctant gun dealers to make the sales. The straw purchasers were not followed by close physical surveillance; they were freely permitted to bulk transfer the guns to, among others, Mexican drug gangs and other violent criminals — with no agents on hand to swoop in, make arrests, and grab the firearms. The inevitable result of this was that the guns have been used (and will continue to be used) in many crimes, including the murder of Brian Terry, a U.S. border patrol agent. In sum, the Fast & Furious idea of “trace” is that, after violent crimes occur in Mexico, we can trace any guns the Mexican police are lucky enough to seize back to the sales to U.S. straw purchasers who should never have been allowed to transfer them (or even buy them) in the first place. That is not law enforcement; that is abetting a criminal rampage." -- K. Pavlich
Re:Isn't it sad? (Score:4, Insightful)
Man, we sure do love conspiracy theories. I'm betting more on that this was just some guy, not part of any "network" or "cell", just another mentally unstable individual that fell through the cracks of our selfish "I got mine, screw the rest of you" culture. Already the first thing people are talking about is what rights will the government deprive them of. Yes individual freedoms are important, but nothing is truly black and white.
And soon it will be the right screaming that the left isn't tough on criminals and can't protect us the way they can, and the left screaming at the right that they're ignorant and savage and cause more harm than good.
Preppers will step up their efforts and stockpile weapons, occupiers will chant some more to a drum circle, and the majority who simply shake their head at both will continue to be ignored in favor of ratings. Divisions will grow, flame wars will commence, and I can't help but wonder what it will take to get everyone to grow up and start thinking clearly.
Re:Isn't it sad? (Score:5, Insightful)
Already the first thing people are talking about is what rights will the government deprive them of.
You're damn right we are. Anyone who's been paying attention to what both parties have been doing to civil liberties in this country post-9/11 is rightly pissed, and knows *exactly* what's coming next. If you don't think there will be gross over-reaction and more curtailment of our rights at ALL levels of gov't, you're either retarded or terribly naive. And if we all don't stand up and say that enough is enough, they'll just keep doing what they're doing, and this country as we once knew it WILL end.
You can't bubble wrap the fucking world. Maybe people will begin to realize that.
/. has servers that stay up - that's why, nerds. (Score:5, Insightful)
If anyone remembers 9/11, most US media websites could not handle Internet traffic. slashdot was able to scale traffic and keep information flowing in a time
of horror and chaos. this is before the day of social media and citizen journalism.
maybe, if you were in Boston now or had friends or loved ones who might have been near the finish line on Boylston Street at the time of the explosionsyou'd be concerned when you could not reach the local newspaper website. maybe then, you would not ask what this has to do with news for nerds.
>> What does that have to do with this?
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The world has changed in the last 12 years, Slashdot is now a little fish in a much bigger pond. In case you haven't noticed, there's now many sites with live video coverage that suck waaaaay more bandwidth and server power than this little mostly text based site.
Re:/. has servers that stay up - that's why, nerds (Score:5, Insightful)
Video of the actual explosion (Score:5, Informative)
Here's a video of the actual explosion: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUsu-yoIzq8 [youtube.com].
Doesn't look good..
Re:Video of the actual explosion (Score:5, Informative)
Looks like another one here that is a little better: http://vine.co/v/bFdt5uwg6JZ [vine.co].
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Moderate-sized explosions in an area packed with people. Very early to speculate, but 'Homemade IEDs' are what the police are saying.
I'm totally speculating here, but this looks like 'domestic' (i.e., US and amateur) terrorists. Foreign governments like their explosives to be high and their targets to be internationally recognised. However, for the people who lost, lives, limbs or loved-ones, this won't be of any consolation. Our thoughts are with them all.
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Info I wrote down from CNN Live stream (Score:4, Informative)
Cell phone service turned off by police (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:the world is so full of jerks... (Score:4, Insightful)
Well, some people go to foreign countries and shoot people from flying drones, others place bombs. Everyone thinks they are the good guys.
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"You're a fucking cunt. These were innocent people, at a wedding".
see how it works now ? sit down fatty and learn something
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
are you seriously comparing targeting civilians to military drone attacks?
They can be the same. It's the entire crux of the argument against drone strikes, in fact, and is the reason why folks in other countries (our "allies," no less) are so up in arms about it.
Here's the difference (Score:5, Insightful)
Drones killing civilians is an accident; people thought there was a military target there. Sometimes mistakes happen, and innocent people die, but the intent is to target military forces and largely that is what happens.
Civilians being killed as in Boston - there is no possibility of it being a military target, the target is as explicitly non-military as you can get.
Can you truly not discern any kind of difference?
Citation Needed (Score:5, Insightful)
According to whom, the government that won't officially acknowledge the program exists?
Re: (Score:3)
Re:Here's the difference (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Here's the difference (Score:5, Insightful)
And the terrorists aren't just doing it to senselessly kill people - they are usually trying to (whether accurately or not) protect thousands or millions of people from threats they perceive.
I'm not a fan of drone strikes. But there's a big difference between the killing of civilians while you're aiming for fighters (even if your aim is super sloppy), and deliberately killing civilians.
If governments earnestly listened to concerned citizens groups from both outside and inside their borders, there would be no terrorism. No happy person wakes up and thinks "Oh, I'll become a terrorist today. It's lovely weather for it". They usually do it because of perceived threats to their family/culture/country/their notion of "us". This is not a mystery. They see it as them having to do it to spare even more misery down the road. Some idiot throwing pipe bombs without political motive is not terrorism, but simple violence. And knowingly using shoddy intelligence to take out what might be a military target is hardly more noble, is it? Drone strikes suck donkey dick. So does terrorism. Solution: honest diplomacy.
I'm all for understanding terrorists and root causes but you're giving terrorists a lot more credit than they deserve. Those reasons you gave lead to societies that tend to generate terrorists. But as for the actual terrorists, they're dysfunctional individuals looking for a purpose. In a healthy society they're join a fraternity, cult, gang, political party hack, or become a spree shooter. In a threatened society they play the hero by becoming a soldier in a war against a great enemy (a terrorist), but the motive is the same, forget your morals and become a part of something.
Re:tell me again (Score:5, Insightful)
That being said -- if this isn't an accident -- there are so many ways to go with this one. First, it's April 15 - which is the TEA party day of action. (got to listen to a "what will you do to defend your country" speech at lunch today). Second, the last mile of the Boston Marathon was dedicated to the victims of Newtown -- so there's that lead in. Third, various politicians et al attend the race -- so there's the assassination angle.
Best course -- pray it turns out to have been a big gas leak.
Re: (Score:3)
Fourth - North Korea has stated that something will happen on April 15th.
Though I don't think its them.
It's a bombing not an explosion (Score:4, Insightful)
The timing is precisely when the world would be watching, and the location is precise as well at the finish line.
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That side of the street is the "VIP" side. Hard to get into that, as I tried to get my wife some kind of access this year ( I ran it). Access requires a pass, and after four or five hours they may open it up.
Re:tell me again (Score:5, Insightful)
>Best course -- pray it turns out to have been a big gas leak.
A war on decrepit infrastructure would probably be a good thing.
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>Best course -- pray it turns out to have been a big gas leak.
A war on decrepit infrastructure would probably be a good thing.
Only if handled better than the Big Dig
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Third, various politicians et al attend the race -- so there's the assassination angle.
The other assassination angle: They only barely missed Joey of New Kids on the Block.
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Not to mention that if someone intended to fire the "First Shot", Boston is an iconic choice.
If there is a group of people responsible for this, I dislike them.
Re:tell me again (Score:5, Insightful)
Tell me again how gun legislation would have prevented this???
Why stop at gun legislation, I would like a full accounting of all laws that are completely unrelated to an explosion (whether intentional or not), and how those laws could have prevented this.
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All the runners should have been carrying their own bombs, that would have stopped it!
Re:tell me again (Score:5, Insightful)
If we wanted to read about ALL news, we would go to news.google.com or something.
Actually, I was reading about it at google news just a few minutes ago, and slashdot tends to be a bit late to the party in reporting stories like this. I'd agree that it's a bit of a waste of bandwidth, disk space, etc. for /. to bother with it. Unless, of course, it turns out eventually that there's an interesting tech component to the story. It's likely that anyone interested in such "public interest" stories has a window open to one or more of the general news sources. So /. shouldn't bother.
OT prediction: If it turns out that the act was committed by an American nutjob, as with the Oklahoma City bombing the media and political system will quickly forget about it. If it turns out that it was done by a "furriner", we'll hear lots about those awful "terrists" for some time, everyone will make vicious pronouncements, and they won't forget about it. In either case, little if anything will be done that's relevant to preventing future such acts.
(But this is just based on history. I could be wrong, so stay tuned. ;-)
Re:tell me again (Score:4, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:tell me again (Score:5, Insightful)
Lay off the weed a bit, "ganjadude," it's making you paranoid but doing your analytical skills no favors. Benghazi was "never spoken about at all," except by just about every media pundit and political campaigner for months (whining on every prime-time TV media show about how there was no media coverage). Do you know anyone in this country who didn't hear endless re-hashes of the Benghazi attacks? So far as the Benghazi incident didn't prompt calls for immediate changes in domestic policy like Sandy Hook did, have you considered that might be because Benghazi isn't in the USA so there's fuck all changes to domestic policy that would be relevant to "preventing the next Benghazi"?
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we heard the media talking about it yes, and the media has been covering for the administration on the issue. notice how no one there has been brought in to be spoken to? in fact the admin has gone out of its way to keep them from speaking. meanwhile we get lie after lie concerning sandy hook, for example today ABC FINALLY admitted that no assault rifle was used in the attack (which is not stopping the government from pushing assault rifle bans)
Re:tell me again (Score:5, Insightful)
Today I think you have it backwards. If it does end up being an american, it will be all over the media, used as an excuse to take away more rights. If it is a "furriner" it will be all over the media, used as an excuse to take away more rights.
There, fixed that for ya. A common mistake to think our current Government in any way wants to serve us, defend our rights, and generally do the right thing. You're not the first to make that mistake.
Re:tell me again (Score:5, Insightful)
Today I think you have it backwards. If it does end up being an american, it will be all over the media, used as an excuse to take away more rights. If it is a "furriner" it will be all over the media, used as an excuse to take away more rights.
There, fixed that for ya. A common mistake to think our current Government in any way wants to serve us, defend our rights, and generally do the right thing. You're not the first to make that mistake.
This. I'm actually far more afraid of what the government will do in response to stuff like this than actually being a victim of something like this.
Re: (Score:3)
OT prediction: If it turns out that the act was committed by an American nutjob, as with the Oklahoma City bombing the media and political system will quickly forget about it. If it turns out that it was done by a "furriner", we'll hear lots about those awful "terrists" for some time, everyone will make vicious pronouncements, and they won't forget about it. In either case, little if anything will be done that's relevant to preventing future such acts.
(But this is just based on history. I could be wrong, so stay tuned. ;-)
I dunno, I'm of the inclination that the amount of media attention will be directly proportional to how many rights will be compromised with the resulting legislation. Which works for both the "terrist" excuse (yay more warrant-less ass ramming) and home grown nutters (the public can't buy certain chemicals, no matter how useful they are in ways not related to explosives).
Re:tell me again (Score:5, Insightful)
In either case, little if anything will be done that's relevant to preventing future such acts.
You seem to be implying that there are things we should be doing that would prevent future such acts. So what should we be doing? I can understand hardening specific point targets like critical infrastructure, and general intelligence gathering. But we are already doing those things. In fact, many people feel that we are already way past the point of diminishing returns. What additional action could we have taken that would have prevented this?
"We will bankrupt ourselves in the vain search for absolute security." -- Dwight D. Eisenhower
Re:tell me again (Score:4, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3)
What additional action could we have taken that would have prevented this?
Like, you know, stop pissing people off for a change.
Re:tell me again (Score:5, Insightful)
The only way to prevent all possible violence against all possible targets is by definition a police state.
Dont want that? Accept the possibility that someone could ruin your life at any possible time, and that as a free society we deal with crimes after they happen, not before.
Re:tell me again (Score:4, Interesting)
Actually, I do have a multi-pronged approach consisting of many items. Unfortunately I still think it is necessary for some kinetic action to be taken against those who would never listen (eg. Al Qaeda). Now it turns out that I actually believe that many Muslims are in fact moral and very law abiding. It just turns out that the set of morals and laws that they obey are barbaric 7th Century edicts that doctrine prohibits from evolving or even discussing. The ideological battle to be waged is *far far* more important than the kinetic battle, but both are necessary for victory. At the moment the US is losing, badly, because it has deluded itself into believing political Islam is the same as various personal faiths - yet it most clearly is not.
For the specifics of my suggestions I hope you will consider my post I put here:
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=3651105&cid=43459335 [slashdot.org]
Please note that I neither call for deportation nor extermination nor oppression of Muslims (a courtesy that Islamists are unwilling to extend to Kosovar Serbs, Iraqi Assyrians, Kurds scattered around the place, Armenians, Egyptian Copts, Indonesian Christians or Southern Sudanese). Let readers judge whether I am trying to be reasonable or not, while still opposing the evil totalitarianism of Islam and promoting the defense of Englightenment Liberties for all.
If you are interested in various aspects of Islamic Law (eg, how the OIC are using the UN to promote evil Sharia worldwide) or how jihad is not in any way an "extremist" Muslim doctrine (as the political left, leftist media, and Islamic apologists continually lie to you about) in the sense that it is, in fact, a *core and mainstream* Islamic doctrine. When an Islamicist says they "condemn terrorism" it never means they condemn jihad. They are condemning "illegal warfare", which in Sharia means those who oppose jihad. This is an example of the Islamic doctrine of lying called "tawriya". Citations for your enlightenment and pleasure:
http://www.islam-watch.org/authors/139-louis-palme/1095-knowing-four-arabic-words-may-save-our-civilization-from-islamic-takeover.html [islam-watch.org]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NsArto3UVT0 [youtube.com] "Stephen Coughlin, Part 2: Understanding the War on Terror Through Islamic Law"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JkAZUvQAzkc [youtube.com] "Stephen Coughlin, Part 5: The Role of the OIC in Enforcing Islamic Law "
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t98WRrOPj2s [youtube.com] "Stephen Coughlin, Part 3: Abrogation & the 'Milestones' Process"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_Qpy0mXg8Y [youtube.com] " Why We Are Afraid, A 1400 Year Secret, by Dr Bill Warner"
So, fellow Slashdotters, please let me cue you in. When the inevitable TV appearances have Muslims condemning terrorism there will be some genuine condolences (those that are good human beings, but bad Muslims) but more than a few will be practicing "tawriya" - saying something with the knowledge that you will interpret it in one way, while they view it as the complete opposite due to the different interpretation under (evil !!!) Sharia.
Re:tell me again (Score:5, Interesting)
OT prediction:
My OT predictions:
1. Fox News is probably already in the process of finding a way to blame Barack Obama.
2. MSNBC is probably already in the process of finding a way to blame Republicans.
3. No one in power will blame the organization that actually was directly responsible for preventing this and similar attacks, the FBI's anti-terrorism unit.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Actually, I was reading about it at google news just a few minutes ago, and slashdot tends to be a bit late to the party in reporting stories like this.. . . So /. shouldn't bother.
I think something slipped past you. Strictly speaking, Slashdot isn't a news reporting site, it is a news aggregator and discussion site (although that generally works better if the news isn't stale as in weeks or years old). That is the point of the forums with each story, and posting - to discuss the news. Or are your posts completely random? (Topic? I don't need no stinking topic! I want to discuss chocolate sundaes! (That should really be hot grits.))
OT prediction: If it turns out that the act was committed by an American nutjob, as with the Oklahoma City bombing the media and political system will quickly forget about it. If it turns out that it was done by a "furriner", we'll hear lots about those awful "terrists" for some time...
Strike two. Oklahoma City is constantly dragge
Re: (Score:3)
Re:tell me again (Score:5, Funny)
Posint anonymously to save what little reputation I have....
What does this have to do with news for nerds?.
Bombs are created by terrorists, terrorism is funded by internet piracy, internet piracy is big news here on /.
Re:tell me again (Score:5, Informative)
What does this have to do with news for nerds?
Why nothing at all that's what.
But you have to be a fucking idiot to have read /. and never noticed that it's more than news for nerds. And it's right in the slogan: "news for nerds, stuff that matters".
Re:tell me again (Score:5, Informative)
People getting hurt in bomb explosions in USA are for everyone. Including a-hole nerds. If you are one this is for you.
For what it's worth, bombings are happening every day [tinyurl.com] elsewhere in the world. But in the US, granted, it's an uncommon sight. Quite sad. (That it happened, not that it's uncommon!)
Re:tell me again (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:3)
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Guess it's too soon to make points that, if someone wants to kill other people, they can do it no matter what is legal or illegal?
Only an idiot or a legislator would think otherwise. But I repeat myself, to quote Mark Twain.
Realistically - not that being realistic has anything to do with politics or ide(ot)ology - it would be useful to be able to use the law to limit the amount of damage that people can do without making it impossible to function as a creative, productive, and free society. An all-or-nothing approach is worse than useless, regardless of which pole you adhere to. We'll never be 100% safe, regardless.
Re:radiation (Score:5, Insightful)
>> Gonna be interesting to see who they nail for this.
Same as every other time this happens: Lady Liberty.
Re: (Score:3)
This is all a plot by the guvmint to take away are guns!! Stoopid obummer!
It doesn't have to be a plot. A convenient attack by enemy forces will have the same result (liberty being targeted).
"You never let a serious crisis go to waste. And what I mean by that it's an opportunity to do things you think you could not do before."
Re: (Score:3)
Not a baby nuke, that wouldn't have left so many people alive in the area, but a dirty bomb, maybe. It's going to happen one day and people need to be ready.
Would North Korea do such a thing? Who knows if they would or not. Who can tell what a madman is going to do. But, someone will and they should add a radiation protocol to the response of these events.
Even North Korea isn't that crazy. It was probably domestic terrorists. North Korea would immediately be nuked into oblivion and they don't want that. Iran wouldn't do that either for similar reasons.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:don't hurt the terrorists (Score:5, Insightful)
> water board the bastards all day if we have to
Only problem is, you already did that. What's the civilian body count in the "war on terror" now? Including the Afghan and Iraq invasions, and continuing drone attacks all over the Middle East. Half a million? One million? And then you're surprised there are a few people who are looking to retaliate?
Violence only produces one result: more violence.
Re:don't hurt the terrorists (Score:4, Interesting)
there were no drones in the 80's and 90's and the same people went from hijacking planes and cruise liners to blowing up sky scrapers in NYC and US Navy destroyers
Re: (Score:3)
Not in World War II.
Some wish to assert all violence is bad. That's not true. Some - most - violence is bad. But sometimes it is good. It's an example of the complexity of the world. Like chemotherapy drugs. Under normal circumstances, they are a poison. But in certain circumstances, they can be used to lifesaving effect.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Don't speak too soon, this could be a right-wing militia group for all we know.
Re:Live Feed from BBC (Score:5, Informative)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-22160978 [bbc.co.uk]
Re:Clearly confirmed as attack (Score:4, Interesting)
This is also doesn't feel like Jihadists...
Indeed. Jihadists would have put the second device in the rubble of the first, made the delay closer to 5 minutes than 20 seconds, and would have made it much larger. This is clearly by someone too concerned with his own safety to do it "right". Thank heavens.
You're describing the u.s funded ira
Re:Tax day bombing (Score:4)
sense of decency
Here, are you serious? People skip right over the deaths to complain about their possible future loss of rights.
I guess that's easy to complain about in a basement away from risk.