Ricin Tainted Letter Sent to Senator and Possibly the President 461
An anonymous reader writes "A letter addressed to Senator Roger Wicker (R-Mississippi) was tested and found to contain ricin, a highly toxic, inexpensive, and easily produced substance derived from castor beans. The letter was intercepted at the U.S. Capitol's off-site mail facility and nobody has been injured. The letter was postmarked Memphis, Tennessee, but listed no return address. Sen. Claire McCaskill told reporters that a suspect has been identified."
And, this morning, a letter addressed to the President was discovered containing a suspicious substance. Update: 04/17 16:25 GMT by U L : And the substance is ricin. Apparently, air filters at another facility have also tested positive for ricin.
Pres letter does have Ricin. (Score:5, Informative)
Source. [nbcnews.com]
Re:Pres letter does have Ricin. (Score:5, Funny)
"Oh Pollux" - says some Brit constellation.
B.S. (Score:3)
"Source."
This is premature BS. This info is based on the first tests, which were not conclusive. That's why your "source" says they are "waiting for further tests results"!!!
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Are pressure cookers used in the production of ricin from castor beans? Because when pressure cookers are outlawed, only outlaws will pressure cook!
No need for that -- after the Boston Marathon incident, anyone even entering Acme Kitchen Supplies stores will go on the terrorist watch list.
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Amazon.
Profile of attacker already available.. (Score:5, Insightful)
Its someone stupid enough to think a Senator opens his own mail. (Shamelessly stolen from Twitter)
Re:Profile of attacker already available.. (Score:5, Interesting)
It's also an odd set of choices. The senator, going by his interest group endorsements and voting record, is pretty much a stock Missisippi conservative. Apparently a trifle too fond of earmarks to be a real hit with team Tea Party; but solid numbers on pro-life, pro-gun, anti-tax. The choice of him and the president(Obama's reputation for liberalism is only deserved in certain areas; but boy is it ever persistent...) just seems rather dissonant.
As an expression of general distaste, you'd expect them to hit the president and, say, the majority and minority leaders, or the Appropriations Commitee. As an expression of a specific ideology, you'd expect targets that are all opposed to it...
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As an expression of a specific ideology, you'd expect targets that are all opposed to it...
If, for instance, it was another unhinged left-winger (they seem to be the majority of attackers), he could point to Obama and this GOP guy as both being far too right-wing.
A right wing whacko could call the GOP guy a Rhino and hate Obama on principle.
But ... mailed from Memphis and targeting an unfamous Mississipi Congressman? Right, there's no chance one of his disgruntled constituents got into the car for a bit "s
Re:The real dissonance (Score:5, Insightful)
Premeditated murder does not mean one is insane.
Re:Profile of attacker already available.. (Score:5, Informative)
Also... what exactly does skin contact with ricin do?
According to this, nothing:
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/04/17/ricin-scare-in-washington-fast-facts-about-the-deadly-poison/ [theblaze.com]
Here we go again (Score:4, Interesting)
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Just cuz that would have prevented these deaths, ya know.
Re:Here we go again (Score:5, Informative)
If we could create legislation that could keep unstable people from bombs, we would. Since we can with guns, we will.
Really? The owner of the guns in the CT killings would have passed any of the newly proposed background checks. She owned the guns legally. They were stolen from her by someone not allowed to have the, who killed her before moving on to kill other people and himself. Which restraint on the 2nd being tossed around would have prevented that crazy guy from being crazy? Please be specific. Thanks.
Re:Here we go again (Score:4, Insightful)
You miss the point of background checks. It is not to stop individual crimes. It is to make it harder - ON AVERAGE - for people with a history of violent and/or criminal behavior to acquire firearms. Think abusive spouses who don't like their ex's being with someone new. Or a stalker who wants to take their obsession to the next level. Or a thug with a record who wants to pick up the latest in thug technology. WIthout a federal background check, states that allow people to carry concealed weapons into bars and schools in the name of "freedom" would do nothing to stop such individuals from acquiring firearms.
The 20 children killed in the Newtown massacre (say that out loud if you are unsure of why people want action) are a drop in the bucket when it comes to gun violence. THOUSANDS have been killed by guns since then, and many of those crimes would almost certainly not have occurred if the US had two things: 1) effective and universal gun regulations, 2) a less fanatical obsession with violence as a solution to people's problems (think "War on ___" or how every "action" movie poster includes someone holding a weapon). I am not one to shy away from criticizing the entertainment industry for their pandering, and hope the increasing number of large-scale public tragedies involving guns will begin to turn the tide against this long-standing trend.
But i digress.
The ridiculous meme that says something like: "Chicago has strict gun laws and they have lots of gun violence" completely ignores the fact that many if not all of the guns used in Chicago come from outside the city's jurisdiction. The same goes for NY, Washington DC, Miami, etc. These cities know what the problem is, but they cant do anything about it because neighboring states ignore it in the name of "freedom". Recent studies have shown that a large percentage of the guns used in NY-Metro area crimes originate as legit purchases in states like Virginia where the gun lobby has fear-mongered the local legislature away from even the most basic regulations.
Consider what would happen if you couldn't go to a "gun show" in someone's backyard and pick up a bunch of handguns to sell on the black market in Chicago. Where would the average street thug get their weapons? Russian arms dealers? 3D printing? Granted there are plenty of weapons already out there, but is "it's hard so what's the point" really an excuse?
And background checks do not address the problem of what you can buy once you pass. Why would anyone need a semi-automatic rifle with armor piercing rounds and a 30-round magazine?!? For that entire heard of delicious armor-plated deer you ran out of standard rounds trying to slaughter? To shoot at UN tanks when they invade Idaho?
Please explain...
Re:Here we go again (Score:4, Insightful)
The ridiculous meme that says something like: "Chicago has strict gun laws and they have lots of gun violence" completely ignores the fact that many if not all of the guns used in Chicago come from outside the city's jurisdiction. The same goes for NY, Washington DC, Miami, etc.
Then why don't the cities around them have the same level of gun violence? The problem with these cities - and the entire country if the politicians have their way - is that honest people do not have guns to defend themselves against people that illegally obtain them.
Your comment is the perfect example of "If you outlaw guns, only outlaws will have guns."
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And where exactly do you think the "dishonest" people get their l
And that is how you fail (Score:3)
You miss the point of background checks.
No we don't. It's for the government to track who has legal guns among people that will not commit crimes.
It is to make it harder - ON AVERAGE - for people with a history of violent and/or criminal behavior to acquire firearms.
Well then it's stupid on the face of it because "ON AVERAGE" all criminals simply buy or steal guns illegally anyway, since they don't want something that could be traced back to them. They are criminals after all.
In the end all you are doing
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No. Its to filter out people who should not have guns in the first place.
And since it cannot possibly help in that regard - fail.
I'm sorry, but the rest of your post centers around this basic premise that is just plain wrong, I can't really argue past that since you will not recognize your core assertion is utterly flawed.
And pulling a Goodwin is bullshit when you are in fact exhibiting fascist ideas.
Re:Here we go again (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm truly curious what background check will keep someone from stealing another person's legally obtained weapon?
Are you suggesting that if you have a family member with issues (I wanted to type "crazy", but that's derogatory IMO) then you shouldn't be able to pass a background check? Where does this kind of logic end and what personal liberties are you willing to forgo to allow a database of this size to happen?
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Either that or you should be required to keep the firearms locked up in a safe, and that person should not be allowed to know how to unlock said safe. Same goes for anyone with children in the house who are under the age of ten or so.
Re:Here we go again (Score:4, Insightful)
Keeping guns locked up is a good idea, and not having guns in a house with people with known mental instabilities is an even better idea. I'm just not sure we need to spend legislative effort on creating laws. We should enforce the current ones, although getting rid of the gun show loophole is a good idea.
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Uh... you're conflating two different people. The purpose of such laws would be to reduce the likelihood of theft of guns that can be used by someone else to shoot people.
Most people do, and even the ones who don't s
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I also can't remember a massive terror attack on Canada. There are a lot of things we can learn from the Canadians. Stay out of foreign affairs being the big one.
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But what you don't realize is many people are increasingly becoming convinced we need this branch to keep us safe. They can't fathom the idea of creating their own safety or just accepting that people have bad days. The direction our culture is heading is to be completely authoritarian and have a military organizational structure with the "perfect" soldiers having all the privileges and the imperfect ones serving the lowest classes if being allowed to continue to exist at all. It's the new form of racism wi
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and how would that have stopped Adam Lanza? He killed his mother and stole her weapons.
According to the state you don't have a right to drive a vehicle. BTW, if a license is required to do something it's not a right.
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According to the state you don't have a right to drive a vehicle. BTW, if a license is required to do something it's not a right.
Wrong on at least two counts.
You need a license to drive a vehicle ON PUBLIC ROADS. That may seem like a trivial detail to you, but it makes all the difference when your framing this as a rights issue. Plenty of farms, for example, have underage (under legal driving age) people, and adults, driving vehicles all over their farm without a license.
As others have pointed out, a licensing requirement does not mean something is not a right.
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Actually driving a vehicle ON public non-private roads IS a PRIVILEGE. You do indeed sign away certain rights when you sign for your drivers license. This only pertains to the use of a vehicle on public roads but occasionally law enforcement has stretched it a bit. This usually has to do with DUI, or search and seizure or drug related laws.
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Alas, if only that were the only Amendment to consider. The Tenth Amendment mentions something about rights not ennumerated, I think. [wikipedia.org]
People tend to dissect the Constitution to support their own beliefs, when in truth it needs to considered as a whole in order to fully appreciate it and apply it correctly.
Regards,
d
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I also think it's more likely that the two incidents are related.
9/11 and the anthrax mailings were essentially unconnected (one opportunistically took advantage of the other, but that's about it). In hindsight, this is a lot more obvious from the attack profiles - al-Qaeda tends to use easily-available weapons or improvised attacks, while the anthrax letters used a hard-to-obtain disease. At the time, we didn't really know the capabilities of al-Qaeda, and the mailer took steps to make the letters look lik
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Any links to stormfront you want to share?
Those are not exactly trustworthy nor impartial websites.
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Any links to stormfront you want to share?
You could have done something useful like provide a link yourself, as it is trivially easy information to find, or a counter-point. Instead you go, predictably [dennisprager.com], to the smear. It would be great if you would make a positive contribution.
Al Qaeda magazine on pressure cookers: ‘Make a bomb in the kitchen of your mom’ [washingtontimes.com]
Boston Marathon bombs: al-Qaeda's Inspire magazine taught pressure cooker bomb-making techniques [telegraph.co.uk]
Re:Here we go again (Score:4, Insightful)
Yes, it's obviously false flag. Or obviously Middle Eastern. Or obviously domestic. Or obviously FBI-inspired conspirators that they didn't stop in time. Or any other "obviously" thing. *eyeroll*
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No one has mentioned extortion or organized crime. More speculation, but could some high up official not decided to blame something like this on some random breed of terrorism just to make people look the other way or "feel like they are being protected from the bad-guys" when shit is really out of control?
Who knows. Things like that DO happen but no one usually knows until 20 years later.
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How so?
The ricin letters make for a terrible false flag. The security measures put in place after the anthrax letters are pretty much stopping them, and they already claim to have a suspect. Assuming the goal of the false-flag op was to garner support for increased security measures, it's a complete failure.
A better false-flag op would have continued the bombings in more locations. Make it look like, without further reducing our liberties, the authorities will be completely unable to stop the attacks.
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I can't fathom a motivation for these things. Stuff like this actually is counterproductive to making a gun free society. See Pakistan were everyone is afraid of everyone or Somalia, to see what kind of affect this kind of "terrorism" has. It's focus and the only motivation I can see is to further destroy the rule of law and create more anarchy.
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Well, let's ban gunpowder instead.
You can't ban gunpowder. It's too easy to make. Explosives in general are easy to make. The hard part is to get them to do what you want, when you want to.
But in a modern industrial society where there are many items and devices with high specific energies (not the right technical term, too tired to look it up), you can release that energy in many ways with various degrees of destructiveness. Look how much time and care we spend on keeping things from blowing up.
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Kind of sad that they killed three people to pull it off, but, well, I don't think anyone has ever accused Obama of having scruples.
What is the matter with you? What goes through your head to think that the President (any president) could/would somehow arrange a terrorist act to outlaw gunpowder? Because the pro-gun lobby is keeping him from passing gun control. You need to take you meds and calm yourself my friend.
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People that claim "false flag" are nutballs.
Improbable claims in the absence of evidence are foolish, but it's not as though false-flag operations [wikipedia.org] don't occur.
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Too much faith in either version of the stories will lead to trouble.
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Thats why it stays speculation. I don't like Alex Jones all that much myself. But he may be slightly more believable then CNN on any given day. CNN usually has nothing meaningful to say. Alex Jones usually just wants to stir up more anti-government shit.
There are stories out there, but you really have to dig deep and get 1st hand accounts. Not the kind of bullshit gibberish that you get on T.V. or a call in on Alex's show.
In other words, trust NOTHING you hear. And go about your daily business as if you hav
There is only one option. (Score:5, Funny)
Just because the Lima Bean ban back in the 1990's didn't reduce the number of assault bean attacks doesn't mean that a properly configured law - which we'll have to pass in order to find out what's really in it, of course - won't save "at least one life."
Next, we'll have to focus on deaths related to soccer and other Assault Sports. I'm looking at you, Kayaking.
Re:There is only one option. (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:You're An Idiot (Score:4, Insightful)
You're a moron, ricin is listed ...
And shooting people is already listed in a thousand different ways as illegal. Banning the objects to prevent what actions some few people might take is exactly what breathless politicians are screaming for. They know it's meaningless, and you know it's meaningless. Just like banning the objects from which ricin is made is meaningless.
Take your failed attempts at political satire...
The satire is all you, buddy. You just don't realize it.
Idiot Status Reaffirmed (Score:3, Insightful)
And shooting people is already listed in a thousand different ways as illegal. Banning the objects to prevent what actions some few people might take is exactly what breathless politicians are screaming for. They know it's meaningless, and you know it's meaningless. Just like banning the objects from which ricin is made is meaningless.
You really are stupid, you know that? We're not proposing a ban on steel, we're proposing a ban on the ultimate object that makes pulling a trigger the difference between life and death. Just like castor beans aren't illegal to walk around with sacks of but it is illegal to walk around with sacks of ricin because it is the final product that allows that person to cause death quickly and without much effort.
Are you saying that ricin, a schedule 1 substance, should be sold to whoever wants it because t
Re:Idiot Status Reaffirmed (Score:4, Funny)
we're proposing a ban on the ultimate object that makes pulling a trigger the difference between life and death.
Ah, so you're proposing a ban on people. I approve!
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There's a constitution in the way, so it has to be (okay, well, it SHOULD BE REQUIRED TO BE) a Constitutional amendment.
But that hasn't stopped anyone lately, it seems.
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"we're proposing a ban on the ultimate object that makes pulling a trigger the difference between life and death."
No, you're not. You're only proposing to take those objects away from law abiding citizens. Criminals who prey upon law abiding citizens will not comply with your ban. AFAIK, you're not planning to disarm government employees either.
The frustration of this whole gun debate is talking with people who refuse to acknowledge the pointlessness of making new laws based on the assumption that crimin
Re:There is only one option. (Score:4)
But ricin is a banned substance, right?
Right, just like shooting people is a banned act.
So that's where the ricin went! (Score:4, Funny)
Half-wits know better than this (Score:3)
If someone wanted to get a piece of [tainted] paper into physical contact with the president or other important US political figure, sending it using the mail system is not the way to do it and I should think it would be more than obvious to anyone. Even without specific knowledge of the fact, various sniffing technologies can and should naturally be presumed as part of the normal mail screening and sorting processes. And even without that, isn't it hard to imagine the president actually opening his own mail?! He must receive 50lbs or mail or more a day from all the concerned citizens and crackpots out there. No way HE goes through it all personally. In which case, even without sniffing and detection technologies, it would likely get to someone else first.
So the perpetrator was either immeasurably stupid and thoughtless or this is something else.... more 'theater' for another cause supporting the loss of freedom and liberty.... or both.
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Yes, this has to be theater. Guaranteed to fail in the objective of hurting someone, but guaranteed to succeed to ratchet up the public's fear level due to a scaremongering press.
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something else.... more 'theater' for another cause supporting the loss of freedom and liberty.... or both.
If you were going to stage an attack to justify a response, why would you have a letter sent with crudely made ricin? Doesn't make a lot of sense.
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Because if it wasn't crude or primitive, the public fear would be that we have a sophisticated enemy rather than one we are all "better than."
The Russians were a fearsome enemy because they were just about as advanced as we were... equals in many respects. Better enemies are the ones we feel superior to like the Vietnamese, Koreans, Iraqis and Afghanis.
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If someone wanted to get a piece of [tainted] paper into physical contact with the president or other important US political figure, sending it using the mail system is not the way to do it and I should think it would be more than obvious to anyone. Even without specific knowledge of the fact, various sniffing technologies can and should naturally be presumed as part of the normal mail screening and sorting processes. And even without that, isn't it hard to imagine the president actually opening his own mail?! He must receive 50lbs or mail or more a day from all the concerned citizens and crackpots out there. No way HE goes through it all personally. In which case, even without sniffing and detection technologies, it would likely get to someone else first.
So the perpetrator was either immeasurably stupid and thoughtless or this is something else.... more 'theater' for another cause supporting the loss of freedom and liberty.... or both.
Never underestimate the stupidity of people.
Re:Half-wits know better than this (Score:5, Insightful)
So the perpetrator was either immeasurably stupid and thoughtless
Do you really think that is implausible?
How do they test for this? (Score:4, Insightful)
Are we seriously testing all mail coming to members of Congress for poisons? How the hell is this accomplished in a reasonable amount of time, with reasonable accuracy, and how much is it costing us?
How about we build a robot that opens the mail, scans the pages into digital form, and skip all that ludicrous bullshit?
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Let's say each MoC gets 200 letters per day -- a reasonable estimate based on some quick Googling. 535 members times 200 letters equals 107000 pieces of mail per day.
Suppose you pay some worker minimum wage to screen mail. They spend on average 20 seconds examining each piece of mail. That's 594 man-hours per day. Minimum wage in DC is $8.25 per hour. So, $4900 per day to screen the mail, just for labor costs.
$4900 per day is a pretty solid base estimate. On top of that, there are costs associated with enha
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Or... allow anyone to email their senators without having to only be from their district (as there's a lot of committees, so by current rules only a few states get to determine energy policy for the whole frickin' US because they won't listen to anyone not from their district, but all bills have to go through committee and most don't make it out alive :( ).
er, what? (Score:2)
Update: 04/17 16:25 GMT by U L : And the substance is ricin. Apparently, air filters another facility have also testing positive for ricin.
What? "air filters another facility?"
You a word or two.
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Update: 04/17 16:25 GMT by U L : And the substance is ricin. Apparently, air filters another facility have also testing positive for ricin.
What? "air filters another facility?"
You a word or two.
"have also testing positive" is another gem. Apparently ricin causes aphasia.
The name of the suspect is... (Score:5, Funny)
McAfee claims tons of ricin smuggled in by Mexico (Score:2)
John McAfee made some far-out claims a few months ago about Mexican cartels helping Muslim terrorists smuggle tons of ricin into the USA.
Let's hope to all that's holy that he was just bat-shit crazy and the allegations are not true, because if they are then thousands of people could be killed by the alleged "tons of ricin"
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Smuggle it? You can grow it in your own front yard! The Castor Bean isn't an illegal plant.
http://waynesword.palomar.edu/plmar99.htm [palomar.edu]
If the feds want whoever is putting this stuff in letters, just look for a avid gardener with a few of these in their yard.
Meta Slashdot Crisis Post: (Score:3)
It is blatantly obvious that if only we had $Politically_Impossible_Ineffective_Action_Advocated_for_Unrelated_Reasons, this tragedy would have been avoided.
Those who are blaming $Different_Reason_For_Different_Unrelated_Reasons, are just cynically using the current crisis for their own political gain!
You're joking, but... (Score:3)
I've seen FB posts saying essentially, "We MUST do something to make sure this can never happen again".
Apparently, these people want a police state, since that's the only scenario where there's even a reasonable probability of that.
John McAfee predicted it (Score:4, Insightful)
McAfee is a bit crazy, but if he's right, then the corrupt Belize government along with Nicaragua helped Hezbollah and Iran commit terrorist attacks in the US with ricin. Yeah, it sounds crazy.
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Or they're planting a seed that will turn into an excuse to go to war with Iran. We'll know in a few months.
smart enough to make it, but a moron elsewise (Score:2)
Why are people smart enough to make something like this...so stupid as to think that the people they name on the letters come anywhere near them?
Newsflash to any mail-related ter'rists in training: Bob Shmoe the Senator doesn't open his mail. He doesn't read it. He doesn't even find out about it. It's some intern or minimum-wage lackey.
Castor beans? (Score:2)
In french, a castor is a beaver. Reading "castor beans" is somewhat confusing.
Tyrone Biggums (Score:3)
Wow ... (Score:4, Insightful)
I imagine he gets these every single day. It goes with the job.
Oh, wait, we have to take advantage of the bombings! We're still at war with Eastasia, remember!
This whole every-aspect-of-our-lives-must-be-in-the-context-of-1984 conspiracy stuff has really gotten out of hand ...
Re:Wow ... (Score:5, Insightful)
I imagine he gets these every single day. It goes with the job.
Oh, wait, we have to take advantage of the bombings! We're still at war with Eastasia, remember!
This whole every-aspect-of-our-lives-must-be-in-the-context-of-1984 conspiracy stuff has really gotten out of hand ...
Has it? I think the actual government-using-1984-as-an-instruction-manual stuff has gotten far more out of hand than your particular gripe.
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I imagine he gets these every single day. It goes with the job.
Oh, wait, we have to take advantage of the bombings! We're still at war with Eastasia, remember!
This whole every-aspect-of-our-lives-must-be-in-the-context-of-1984 conspiracy stuff has really gotten out of hand ...
To true. There's clearly a lone nut out there who thinks they are doing something God wants or their personal politics dictate and killing people is how they accomplish their mission. I hope they are found and boxed up securely and as soon as possible.
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This is still unfortunately speculation. Wishful, misguided speculation. But pure speculation. I want wake up in a world one day were I can trust the news I hear and the government spokespeople WE elected. But I fear this won't be the case for some time.
Oh well, there's always wild speculation.
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To true. There's clearly a lone nut out there who thinks they are doing something God wants or their personal politics dictate and killing people is how they accomplish their mission. I hope they are found and boxed up securely and as soon as possible.
Of course...but that doesn't mean they're not taking advantage of the bombings to blow this story out of proportion, followed by some sort of power grab.
Me? I'm still reeling from the fact that he didn't have to go through Airport security to be able to do this. Does that mean the TSA is a sham, that terrorists aren't powerless if they can't get on an Aircraft? That would mean the whole "organized terrorist" thing is a lie, that they don't exist. Say it ain't so!
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Let's all just thank our respective deities that this guy didn't use any high capacity magazines - Imagine the body count then!
/ Off to write my congresscritter demanding background checks for pressure cookers
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I hope they are found and strung up by the neck in the square for all to see. Yes IAARNS (I am a red neck southerner)
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Oh, snap! I see what you did there. You compared one person wanting to imprison another person with one person murdering 3 people and injuring 170+- more. Clearly your perspective is the proper one.
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This whole every-aspect-of-our-lives-must-be-in-the-context-of-1984 conspiracy stuff has really gotten out of hand ...
"How start?"
Re:So? (Score:5, Funny)
Have you noticed that whenever something bad happens in America, to normal people, the next day or the same day, a letter with a "suspicious substance" is sent to a politician in D.C.?
They must have a special unit called "All About Us" that just sends these out as needed.
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So we know the perp is a million years old. Should be easy to find.
Psssst. Not only are letters outdated; so is email and so are voice phone calls. Nobody uses email and voice any more; it's all text messaging.
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Nothing new; we've been anti-castor since 1960.
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Simply regulating, taxing, or creating a black market that can be regulated by a 3 letter agency and give our good o'le boys much needed mercenary work and training should be sufficient.
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I think that is the saddest part of the entire thing. All the evidence for gun control is anecdotal. Some of the recent mass shootings have been tragic for those involved but they simply should not rise to the scale of a national tragedy. Statistically you are at almost not risk of being killed in a mass shooting. Infringing our second amendment rights is for not.
This latest anecdote should show that a deranged individual or group that wants to hurt a bunch of people can find a away; in an even moderate
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Excellent point. One that I've been attempting to make repeatedly with my unresponsive elected asshatz and anyone else who will listen. Emotional anecdotes are a ridiculous basis for public policy. If some serial child rapist escapes justice because the police obtained evidence with an illegal search, that doesn't mean that we need to undermine the 4th Amendment so that no child rapist ever escapes justice.
Yes, the murders and attempted murders in Boston clearly demonstrate that a person intent on viole
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You know the statistics support gun control right? Wealthy countries with more gun control than the US have lower fatal homicide and suicide rates.
Mass shootings are anecdotal, on both sides. There are real statistics, and they're not on your side.
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There is no relation between the 2nd amendment and a bombing. Anyone who puts that out there is clearly spouting without thinking.
What liberty and freedom can they take away after the bombing? Well, they can get heavier on public surveillance. After all "if there were cameras on every corner for every angle, the perpetrator(s) would have been recorded!" As for attempted poisoning? Let your mind run wild but once again, cameras on mail boxes would probably be an excuse there as well but there would prob
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you're completely full of shit
Really? Here's a typical Hollywood type on the subject:
http://dailycaller.com/2013/04/16/actor-blames-boston-attack-on-gun-culture-2nd-amendment-must-go/ [dailycaller.com]
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He's already dead...or alive.
what monster sent these poison-pen letters?!!! (Score:2)
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how the hell can you find a suspect for something like this?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2001_anthrax_attacks#Investigation [wikipedia.org]
Re: (Score:2)
Not that I disagree but this could be a much more difficult case to figure out because ricin is a much easier substance to get ahold of than an anthrax culture.
Re: (Score:2)
Nice ridiculous argument.
There's no effective defense against stuff like this beyond what is already in place and WORKING. Detection and prevention was in place and it worked. Nothing to see here.
Clearly your statement is "anti-gun" and so I ask you. What is your idea of defense against gun violence? Please describe a scenario that might work if someone is not allowed to deter a threat with a weapon? I think we all appreciate when people have an opinion (an emotion actually in most cases) that firearms
Re: (Score:2)
Most of them are.
Re: (Score:3)
I hear snu-snu isn't bad. Well, I mean it's bad, but in a good way.