Friday Reads: Make Love not War
Posted: April 19, 2013 Filed under: Afghanistan, Anti-War, children, Domestic terrorism, Drone Warfare, Egypt, Foreign Affairs, Great Britain, India, Iraq, Israel, morning reads, Saudi Arabia, Syria | Tags: Bombings Boston, Bombings Cambodia and Laos, Bombings Gaza, bombings India, Bombings Iraq, Bombings Ireland, Bombings London, Bombings Spain, Bombings Syria, gun violence 81 Comments
Good Morning!
We certainly have created a lot of ways to destroy each other haven’t we? We also seem to breed a lot of individuals that are capable of doing great harm without reservation. This week has brought the carnage once again into our back yard. It is important to remember that we have brought and are bringing worse carnage and that we are not alone in our experience.
We have sophisticated drones that appear to take out as many innocents as they do bad guys. Just yesterday in Baghdad, a suicide bomber killed 26 in a crowded cafe. Less than a month ago, 2 blasts occurred in a busy shopping district of Hyderabad, India. These twin blasts killed 14 people and injured 119. Seventeen were injured today in Bangalore in a car bomb blast. Neither India or Boston are war zones. Baghdad was not a war zone until we invaded it. We left it to whatever it is today.
Then, there is the daily amount of gun violence in the country. Let me return to Boston for this perspective.
Boston Police Commissioner Edward F. Davis said today that he hopes to cut gun crimes in half this summer during Boston’s most violent months: July and August, when the city typically sees between 37 and 48 shootings each month.
The department’s ranks were boosted as 28 members of the force were promoted and one new officer was named during a ceremony this morning.
Davis said those promotions represent the department’s efforts to fill vacancies in preparation for the summertime.
“We’re going to have a full court press on those months this year,” said Davis. “We’re gonna do a lot of preventive work leading up to those months. There’s gonna be a significant amount of attention paid to the impact players in the city. We want them to put their weapons down.”
Nationally, we experience 88 gun deaths a day. There have been about 3,524 gun deaths in this country since the Sandy Hook Slaughter. As you carefully read that sign made by the youngest victim of the Boston Bombs above, consider this:
… a child in the U.S is about 13 times more likely to be a victim of a firearm-related homicide than children in most other industrialized nations.
Firearms were the third leading cause of injury-related deaths nationwide in 2010, following poisoning and motor vehicle accidents, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
For the sake of comparison, in 2010 there were more than twice as many firearms deaths in the U.S. than terrorism-related deaths worldwide.
Then consider how completely ignorant most people are of our violent legacies to other countries. Think of mass murderers of the 20th century, and then read this.
Mr. Kissinger’s most significant historical act was executing Richard Nixon’s orders to conduct the most massive bombing campaign, largely of civilian targets, in world history. He dropped 3.7 million tons of bombs** between January 1969 and January 1973 – nearly twice the two million dropped on all of Europe and the Pacific in World War II. He secretly and illegally devastated villages throughout areas of Cambodia inhabited by a U.S. Embassy-estimated two million people; quadrupled the bombing of Laos and laid waste to the 700-year old civilization on the Plain of Jars; and struck civilian targets throughout North Vietnam – Haiphong harbor, dikes, cities, Bach Mai Hospital – which even Lyndon Johnson had avoided. His aerial slaughter helped kill, wound or make homeless an officially-estimated six million human beings**, mostly civilians who posed no threat whatsoever to U.S. national security and had committed no offense against it.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), a staunch supporter of the U.S. drone wars, Wednesday become the first government official to put a number on the estimated drone strike death toll.
“We’ve killed 4,700,” Graham said during a speech at a South Carolina rotary club, reported on by the local Easley Patch and flagged by Al Jazeera.
“This is the first time a US official has put a total number on it,” said Micah Zenko, a fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations told Al Jazeera, but Graham’s office stated that the senator was only repeating “the figure that has been publicly reported and disseminated on cable news.” Graham’s figure aligns with estimates from groups included the U.K.-based Bureau of Investigative Journalism (BIJ), which has calculate that between 3,072 and 4,756 people have been killed by U.S. drones in Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia.
Graham’s figure did not distinguish between “combatant” and “civilian” casualties — a distinction which has, in the War on Terror, prompted debate. But the senator did reportedly say, “Sometimes you hit innocent people, and I hate that, but we’re at war, and we’ve taken out some very senior members of al-Qaida.”
I’d like to know why some acts of violence attract so much attention and outrage? Tons of folks have been out in their virtual scooby vans warping into the witch hunt version of Encyclopedia Brown trying to finger the ‘dark skinned’ individuals that could’ve set the bombs on the Boston Marathon route. Have any of these idiots ever looked at the gun death rate in their own town or state? Have they ever concerned the morality of bombing wedding celebrations? Are they still taking Henry Kissinger or Donald Rumsfeld seriously? Have they possibly cracked a paper to find out exactly how many bombings happen on this planet and how many of them we commit? For that matter, why aren’t they looking for guys that look like Timothy McVeigh or Eric Rudolph? Ever been to London and tried to find a trash can?
In London, public trash cans are hard to come by, as they’re an easy receptacle for bombs. Which makes it hard to throw things away properly! Now, the city is going to bring trash cans back, but they’re going to be big, hulking masses, totally bomb-proof and equipped with LCD screens to tell you the days news as you throw away your coffee cup.
Traveling to Europe–especially London–in the 1970s and 1980s included an introduction to basic instructions on what to do if a bomb went off and what to do to avoid being in an area that was likely subject to bombing. There are still Basque separatists bombing Spain. We’re coming up on the anniversary of Bloody Sunday. I was in Europe a lot in 1972 and it was like the year of the bomb over there. But, again, there was Kissinger too. It was the year I learned not to look or sound overly American.
Hundreds of thousands of innocent human beings in Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam were forced to live in holes and caves, like animals. Many tens of thousands were burned alive by the bombs, slowly dying in agony. Others were buried alive, as they gradually suffocated to death when a 500 pound bomb exploded nearby. Most were victims of antipersonnel bombs designed primarily to maim not kill, many of the survivors carrying the metal, jagged or plastic pellets in their bodies for the rest of their lives.
Then, riddle me this. What is the difference between setting bombs on the street filled with crowds, or a bomb in a cafe, or a drone that hits a wedding or having one Texas “Job Creator” callously killing an entire city and a lot of its inhabitants because he just doesn’t want to be bothered with work place safety regulations or say, proper placement of a dangerous plant to start out with? I mean what exactly do you call a guy that runs a business that blows up an entire town and kills–at this point in time–35 people including 10 first responders? (That’s a link to CNN and USA Today so consider it with care.)
It really bothers me that we–as a nation–appear to have selective attention on what kind of violence gets our shock and attention and what kinds of violence we choose to ignore every day, every year, or in the case of the atrocities of Kissinger, every decade or four. We have had some horrific carnage recently. We’ve had children slaughtered in their classroom. We’ve had folks standing on the street celebrating a holiday ending up in hospital with wounds severe enough to warrant the kinds of amputees soldiers need in Afghanistan. This is horrific, but it does not operate in a vacuum or a world where we have done no wrong or where these kinds of events are rare.
Child victim in Gaza
So, call me Debbie Downer and tell me to get my unpatriotic ass out of the country or call me insensitive. I want to see a consistent and strong level of outrage, shock, and trauma displayed for all innocent victims of unspeakable violence. The hometowns of all of these victims should be our hometowns.
Child victim in Syria
Here is a great question from a great writer, Juan Cole. Can the Boston Bombings increase our Sympathy for Iraq and Syria, for all such Victims?
The idea of three dead, several more critically wounded, and over a 100 injured, merely for running in a marathon (often running for charities or victims of other tragedies) is terrible to contemplate. Our hearts are broken for the victims and their family and friends, for the runners who will not run again.
There is negative energy implicit in such a violent event, and there is potential positive energy to be had from the way that we respond to it. To fight our contemporary pathologies, the tragedy has to be turned to empathy and universal compassion rather than to anger and racial profiling. Whatever sick mind dreamed up this act did not manifest the essence of any large group of people. Terrorists and supremacists represent only themselves, and always harm their own ethnic or religious group along with everyone else.
The negative energies were palpable. Fox News contributor Erik Rush tweeted, “Everybody do the National Security Ankle Grab! Let’s bring more Saudis in without screening them! C’mon!” When asked if he was already scapegoating Muslims, he replied, ““Yes, they’re evil. Let’s kill them all.” Challenged on that, he replied, “Sarcasm, idiot!” What would happen, I wonder, if someone sarcastically asked on Twitter why, whenever there is a bombing in the US, one of the suspects everyone has to consider is white people? I did, mischievously and with Mr. Rush in mind, and was told repeatedly that it wasn’t right to tar all members of a group with the brush of a few. They were so unselfconscious that they didn’t seem to realize that this was what was being done to Muslims!
Indeed, sympathy for Boston’s victims has come from around the world from places like Iraq that we’ve plastered with bombs not that long ago. Condemnation for this act came from elected officials in Egypt from the Muslim Brotherhood which has been absolutely slathered with the mark of satan by the likes of our elected officials like whacko Michelle Bachmann. This part of Cole’s essay really got to me and I was already teary eyed hearing about Jane and Martin Richard from their school’s headmaster on Last Word.
Some Syrians and Iraqis pointed out that many more people died from bombings and other violence in their countries on Monday than did Americans, and that they felt slighted because the major news networks in the West (which are actually global media) more or less ignored their carnage but gave wall to wall coverage of Boston.
Aljazeera English reported on the Iraq bombings, which killed some 46 in several cities, and were likely intended to disrupt next week’s provincial election.
Over the weekend, Syrian regime fighter jets bombed Syrian cities, killing two dozen people, including non-combatants:
What happened in Boston is undeniably important and newsworthy. But so is what happened in Iraq and Syria. It is not the American people’s fault that they have a capitalist news model, where news is often carried on television to sell advertising. The corporations have decided that for the most part, Iraq and Syria aren’t what will attract Nielsen viewers and therefore advertising dollars. Given the global dominance by US news corporations, this decision has an impact on coverage in much of the world.
Here is a video by the United Nations High Commission on Refugees (UNHCR) on the dilemma of the over one million displaced Syrians, half of them children:
So I’d like to turn the complaint on its head. Having experienced the shock and grief of the Boston bombings, cannot we in the US empathize more with Iraqi victims and Syrian victims? Compassion for all is the only way to turn such tragedies toward positive energy.
Perhaps some Americans, in this moment of distress, will be willing to be also distressed over the dreadful conditions in which Syrian refugees are living, and will be willing to go to the aid of Oxfam’s Syria appeal. Some of those Syrians living in refugee camps in Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey were also hit by shrapnel or lost limbs. Perhaps some of us will donate to them in the name of our own Boston Marathon victims of senseless violence.
Terrorism has no nation or religion. But likewise its victims are human beings, precious human beings, who must be the objects of compassion for us all.
It is absolutely true that the shortcomings of our press this week were on parade this week. They basically spent hour-after-hour in what seemed like a glorified witch hunt. But there is a bigger injustice and short coming. Other people around the world–suffering and dying–deserve to have their stories told also. Every innocent victim of violence deserves justice and recognition. This is true of those 88 who die every day in this country from guns. It is true of all those killed by state violence be it ours or Bashar al-Assad or the crazy jerks that set of bombs on streets all over the world or fire military style weapons in our schools and movie theaters. All of this should cause the press to do its job and it should cause our hearts to grieve equally. Why obsess minute by minute on one act when there is a world full of them to choose from? Why not give all of the victims of violence their due?
So, what is on your reading and blogging list today?
peej
Carissa
bostonboomer
ecocatwoman
mablue2
peggysue22
quixote
skydancingguestblogger
Mona (aka Wonk the Vote)
Sky Dancing 
Finally an expression of what I’ve been feeling for so long. The tragedies that have rocked America lately, from Newtown to Chicago (Hadiya death’s) to Boston have been horrible yet there are children, especially, around the world who face a violent death from either terrorists, dictators or American bombs each and every day. Simply going to the market with their mother may end in either injury or death. The beating of the drums of war by some of our elected officials is pornographic, imho. So, kat, if you’re unpatriotic then I am as well. I can’t seem to understand why the death of an American child is exponentially worse than the death of an Iraqi, Syrian or Pakistani child. No child, no nation’s people should have to live in constant fear day in and day out. For many in countries around the world that is their reality. If the violence continues to escalate, will it become an American reality as well? Isn’t it long overdue that we wage peace instead of war?
Personally, I’m horrified by any child being hurt or killed. But it’s hard for me to write about events that happen in places where I don’t live and have little knowledge or background.
I can’t help feeling empathy for the children who get hurt in my own home town–and their families. But as I said yesterday, I won’t be writing about the Boston bombings or their victims again.
How do I “wage peace” though? I’d love to learn how.
My comments weren’t directed at you & I certainly haven’t had any problem with your coverage of the bombings at the marathon and the subsequent hunt for the bombers. You are in the center of the storm so it’s great to have a personal, feet on the ground perspective as opposed to the talking heads mostly spouting junk to fill up the airwaves. My point, I guess, is that Americans in general seem to value American lives over the lives of “those others.” It just comes across – the general coverage/conversation – as xenophobic. No one, regardless of gender or age, should have to live in constant fear nor struggle daily to survive. All life is precious (and I extend that to non-human animals and plants as well) to me. I guess since I don’t have any family it is more difficult for me to take these tragedies personally or to grieve one more than another. It’s one big emotional pain for the constant, senseless violence inflicted by humans throughout the world for me.
I didn’t see your edit when I started my comment. There’s no short answer, but to be as concise as possible, we need to change our mindsets and rhetoric. Revenge, violence shouldn’t be the default position in righting a wrong or solving a problem. Whether it’s spaying/neutering cats & dogs instead of killing them to solve the overpopulation problem to talking war to solve conflicts around the world we need to change the dialog & thus our perspective. Then there’s school curriculum, which wouldn’t hurt to teach the truth about the discovery and settlement of our nation or colonialism around the world and the damage done by that throughout history. We glorify war & warriors instead of including the horrors of war. Dennis Kucinich proposed a Department of Peace when he was in office. Wouldn’t that be better than a War Department? Granted that is pie in the sky, fairytale land, but it’s a wonderful thought and worth discussing, imho.
I didn’t say your comments were directed at me. All I said was that I had sworn off writing about Boston.
But the problem is when your whole city is in lockdown and there are bombs going off and firefights in the streets, it’s difficult to focus on anything else. But I’ll come back and read your comments when I recover from what’s going on in my city right now. Thanks for replying.
I think you should write about what ever you want to write about. I enjoy reading everything you writer.
The way is through the United Nations………but we have a few freaks here in America with the Agenda 21, Black Helitcopters, and Commie Pinko’s, and they want control………………..So if it is not done via that route, well……………It’s gonna be the guy with Biggest GUN that wins.
Boston Boomer is not that far from the events that are unfolding right now.
At this hour 320,000 people are being told they cannot leave their homes and all of the colleges and universities surrounding that area are closed out of safety fears.
The perpetrator may be equipped with an IED strapped to his body.
The police are going house to house in Watertown, MA.
I’m a 10-15 min. drive from the crime scene. Three towns that are right next to mine are in lockdown, so I can’t really go anywhere.
That’s so close. You must be terrified. Please be careful & stay safe.
I’m not the least bit terrified.
Hang in there BB! And please write about whatever you feel. It’s important to us.
BB, your perspective on the Boston bombings has been extremely valuable. I am grateful to you for writing about the situation. I know it has been a very stressful time for you.
My thoughts are with you, Pat’s family, and all the people in the Boston area.
BB, you have the right to vent about your own city on your own blog. What happens in other countries does not make what happened in Boston less horrific. Instead of writing less about Boston, I wish people (not here necessarily if you don’t have the expertise) could write more about the lives of others severely damaged by US acts.
Vent??
I’ve written many posts about what our country has done in other countries.
my beef is with our press who seem to arbitrarily decide whose life is valuable by where they direct their resources and time
Now they are naming Dzhokar Tsarnaev who is held up in a house. his brother was the other suspect killed last night.
After an even bigger witch hunt last night …
Wow. they are literally Caucasian males.
BB you did fine, but I think we should figure out a way to get rid of the NY Post too, when we do away with FOX and Limbaugh and WMD. How can we get others to STOP supporting them?
It almost worked with Limbaugh on the Sandra Fluke affair. At least a few sponsors dropped him.
Limbaugh operates with almost no traditional sponsors. My husband decided to listen to right wing radio for a while after the election in November just to enjoy their handwringing. He said that there are very few commercials on Limbaugh’s show, especially apparently since the Fluke affair. So how does he stay on the air? Where does the money come from? I don’t think it’s a stretch to think that Limbaugh’s show is funded by the Koch brothers and their ilk so losing traditional sponsors will never drive him off the air.
I started watching CBS coverage of this then I switched to MSNBC when my local CBS affiliate decided that “Let’s Make a Deal” was more important than staying with the network. Supposedly MSNBC is the more credible network given CNN’s ruined reputation but I have to say the coverage so far is awful. Just awful. There is a desperate need for a credible news network in this country. I’ve actually switched to CNN because I can’t stand listening to whomever the anchor is on MSNBC right now. She is loud and rude and seems more interested in getting her point across rather than just reporting the goddamned news.
That is an excellent idea about the NY Post.
BB – PTSD is rampant in our population now. From what has been wrought by our government. What I felt the first few minutes of “shock and awe” needs no reminders – I was sickened, disgusted knowing who would sustain the most deaths – innocent citizens – for profit only. Having read about how other countries are treated by the US for DECADES – being a human being, having a brain and the ability to identify with innocent victims – what is happening now is to be expected. I used to think it was rare air our country leaders were breathing that made them so dense toward what they were doing, hubris – it is evil as Dubya mentioned – strange to hear sociopaths use words that completely describe themselves. But, in their glibness, manipulative cunning world – that is what they do. For the weak and parasitic – it certainly is no problem for them to accept such behavior. The US is in full moral decay – greed is not good. It is still early to hear facts on Boston and I trust nothing in the media as far as who has caused this horrid event. There have been many pols like Dubya – he was/is just the most blatant which was the most frightening for me. I cannot thank Skydancing enough for their clarity – I have not watched the media for years now – all those parasitic news persons repeating absolute crap – GIGO. It’s not just the news programs – it is all the other programing with shallow messages that is destroying our country and it’s youth. How are they supposed to survive in this morally devoid world we have let develop with warp speed in the last decade? The message is to win at all cost – winning means $$$ – no moral judgement. We are ‘enjoying’ what our government has been working on – sheer chaos, greed, devastation. Nothing is safe – food, water, air, medical care, no life is valued. Nothing is as it seems. Esteemed professions have been taken over for profit only – medical, religion, education, long list and it is done flagrantly now, hardly any pretense. Get an education and be in debt from predatory lending for the rest of your life with no prospects of gainful employment because the CEO’s need billions. Morals are too costly in today’s world and our youth reads this message every day. Those who realize what is happening and don’t speak up are just as guilty as those doing it. Every day brings heartbreak and suffering from what we have as a government now. Corporations are not human beings – have no right to destroy life as they are doing. We have a supposed democratic president operating as a rethug – in plain sight. There is no party ideology to separate either party – it’s all ALEC representing corporate welfare. My PTSD is in full view – not just these violent acts we read about every day. When you have been assaulted – deliberately crippled, and almost die from medical care – which you refused loudly at the time and was ignored, your PTSD is overwhelming. Especially when you are told – even with records and lists of drugs known to cause what you experienced – no problem……. it’s like being violated by a murderer and told it did not happen. The general public can’t help but have PTSD – just like other countries have suffered. America is not and has not been number one in anything for a long time. With the exception of being number one predator. BB – your input is valued about any subject, but, since you live where this massacre happened – even more so. The media, just like medical entity, has to check with their ‘risk managers’ before telling any truths – if the risk is just being wrong in the ‘right’ direction – no problem. I am not unpatriotic – I want what my country is supposed to be.
Boo – good grief that’s horrible. Take care of yourself, please.
Sorry to post such a long rant – one shoud never ever post when one’s hair is on fire.
Terrific rant, Boo…
I loved it. Rant on.
Let’s see if we can take this down to little the mind of Martin Richard (8 years). I can tell you that I grew up in and around violence, meaning inside my family, and in my community. We didn’t have a t.v., we did have a radio (but that was music and weather)…………we didn’t have all the avenues via internet, or video movies or games. In my household, there were very few books. So what I learned came from what was in an around me……..and it being the deep south, that ought to tell what was seeping into my head. I was living in fear, my mother was abused, and my brain won’t let me forget that. I have often tried to bury it along with my experience of being ganged raped, that didn’t work for me either. I didn’t talk about it for a long, long time, and certainly not as a young girl. I was expected to look the other way and say nothing about those experiences. Dak can tell you what she might know about the St. Thomas Projects………because that was the breeding ground for me, in fact thousands like me, and my family, that my friends was the ghetto. So in me, you can see all sorts of inner voices trying over the years to balance my life out, not just for me, but others. I didn’t love my past life, but I thought I had more fun being poor.
What was it that little Martin sensed about “hurt”…………..and “peace”, and was digging deeper than most his age, he wasn’t feeling good about what he saw or heard, or read that was going on around him. His parents, his teachers must have done a hell of a good job to help him sort through this………………….on the path of looking at this precious little boy, maybe we to begin with hurt no people – those feelings he expresses, what does that mean in society here and around the world. As we know there are some children who know nothing else but violence and hurt feelings, they have never lived “peace”…………..are we becoming that way too?
So yeah, let’s talk about making PEACE.
Fannie so true. did you have that white plastic radio? I loved listening to Behind the Green Door, the Shadow and the Inner Sanctum. It helped me because I was molested/raped and my parents didn’t want to know. I was 5 years old. Peace – I’ve been wanting, marching and waiting for peace for most of the last 50 years.
What happened in Boston and is happening all over the world is disgraceful, disgusting and not to be accepted by a civilized society. I admit that Boston did grab my attention mainly because 40 of my son’s friends and acquaintences were in the marathon, but I was equally appalled by the carnage in Iraq
HT…….that was a wooden philco box type. The thing about growing up during those tender years, is survivial. Because of my age, it helped me alot to focus on issues that women were finally coming out and getting invovled with, such as rape counseling, and domestic violence, and health issues. And also the Vietnam war brought about issues for peace, and politics.
As I was making breakfast I listened to someone talking about all the violence in the middle east, and basically acting like we don’t have a part in that. My thinking says hey, men have played a part in violence agains women since the beginning of time, and maybe not all women have experienced it, but I can tell many, many more of us, said enough……….so we try to help, only to come to the circle where men have decided to speak & deny women choices of reproductive health care, programs and systems in place to help, planned parenthood, rape couseling, and domestic abuse. They are disconnecting all the avenues we have developed that could help our planet. Those systems were beginning to generate the peace that Martin wrote about………………We hear Martin, we hear the wailing from the children in all corners of the world, and we too need to be heard, to welcome women and men with different cultures from all over the world to help develop visions of world wide peace.
Martin and all the children like him are living 9/11 over and over. That is why I so want Hillary to help us rebuild women’s and children’s lives, here and around the world. She has alot of sensiblity about this, she’s been there and seen it, and done it.
To be honest Fannie, I’m not one for hero worship, however Hillary is the closest I’ve come – she’s amazing and in an age when women appear to be comatose about their rights all over the world, we need someone who can re-activate and inspire. Hillary is that person, but I doubt she will come forward. She’s paid her dues many times over, probably looking for a less hectic life with her daughter and family. Maybe Chelsea?
I hear ya HT………..she doesn’t have to be President to help us rebuild…..she just needs to keep us infused with the spirit, and the will to keep running, keep going forward…….know what I mean? I welcome Chelsea to peaceful days too, here and around the world.
As The Strange Morning Continues
Pierce with words of wisdom, in which I completely agree.
I agree with Pierce. I’m getting much more of a Columbine feel than al Quaeda. Before I found out who these two were I thought it might have to do with Aaron Schwartz, but now I don’t know why they targeted MIT. It could just be a coincidence.
Agreed. Unless of course, in some wild fantasy, one of them went to Russia where he got switched for some weird double, who then came back, killed the younger brother and switched him out.
Science fiction often has an undertone of paranoia.
Lynn Parramore @LynnParramore 12m
I just got an email from Bowles-Simpson announcing their new deficit-reduction plan – based, as we know, on Reinhart & Rogoff.
Fellow GOP congressman says Grassley’s immigration/Boston comments “not appropriate” http://slnm.us/RiIukzc
OH for gawd’s sake… can we just kill all the national news reporters now please?
Gambit @The_Gambit 2m
Seriously doubt it, Tapper. RT @jaketapper This may sound odd but there’s a New Orleans after Katrina vibe to downtown Boston right now
Fuck Tapper!
I don’t know. There are army vehicles all over the place now.
Dak, I was thinking about what’s his name Aaron Brown……..CNN fired him, and I think he’s teaching somewhere. He wasn’t into the entertainment business and didn’t go for sensationalism………..he reported “news for grown-up”, and slamed those who were making 35 million a year to “keep them honest”…………….That’s a hell of a vibe to think about and remember.
I always watched Aaron Brown …I was heartbroken when they replaced him with Cooper as much as I like Coop
Hi everyone. I finally went to sleep for awhile. Thanks for all the kind comments. I could use a hug right now but I live alone. My mom got some hugs at the hairdresser this morning because they know she has two children in Boston.
I’m feeling just very discombobulated.
((((hugs))))
Thanks!
Big Hugs from me to you BB………….it’ll will get easier, know we are here for you.
Thanks, Fannie.
Who wouldn’t feel discombobulated under the circumstances? Sleep usually is a good panacea for whatever ails us or is bothering/worrying us. Glad you were able to get some much needed rest.
Definitely lots of (((((HUGS))))) coming your way. Too bad you don’t have a nice furball to curl up next to you and purr. Purrs make lots of stuff better too.
I’d give anything to have a furball here right tnow. Thanks, Connie.
Jamison Foser @jamisonfoser 1m
Anderson Cooper acting all surprised a 19 year old didn’t have an “exit strategy,” like he’s never heard of Don Rumsfeld.
Ain’t that the truth.
Today is the real Patriots Day, April 19, 1775.
I was just checking out CNN says the police are doing house to house searches and the way guess that whole you need search warrant before they can enter your home thing goes out the window .
You don’t need a warrant if people let you in. I don’t think they are searching houses anyway. They are knocking on doors. This “martial law” talk is a little extreme. All they did is *ask* people to stay indoors. They aren’t arresting people who go out. It’s a REQUEST. See the difference?
Would it be better if people were running around getting blown up by the bombs they’ve been finding in Watertown and Cambridge?
did I miss something or did someone put the Boston area under martial law.
I think the real story is changing from the Boston bombers this military presence that has moved into the Boston area and they things are going down is it just me or dose anyone else think that this is alarming ??
I am not even living there, but have seen via the tv, lights from police/military, and heard the recorded explosions, and heard dogs barking, but I haven’t heard the sounds of low flying jets overhead…………….makes me think of a town with gates, one way in and one way out. That is alarming.
I asked the same question over at Cannonfire. I am also very concerned that they released the pictures of the suspects so quickly which caused them to panic and as a result at least 1 innocent person is now dead. I think our police force is much, much to militarized at this point.
No boogie, there was no martial law. People have posted about going out and doing errands. One town had a big police and SWAT team presence, and they searched house to house, yards and garages. They did not search inside houses. There was never an official lockdown order to my knowledge. If you were watching the coverage, you’d think it was a lot worse than it is. The main street running through Watertown MA is what’s primarily affected and business were closed there. I lived in that area for eleven years. It’s a busy urban street so it makes sense to close it down if there’s a possibility of gunfire or bombs.
Welcome to the world of Homeland Security
((((hugs)))) BB – til you can get the real ones from your brother’s family and your close by friends. I second the thought of your having a fur baby – they have been amazing comfort for me.
Thank you. I wish I could go to my brother’s, but he lives in the lockdown zone.
Wow, have you been able to contact him?
My mom talked to him. The whole Boston area has been ordered to stay off the streets. It’s kind of silly, I think. But the bombers lived in Cambridge. I live the next town over and my brother is in Cambridge. I don’t really think there’s anything to worry about. The guy is either still in Watertown or he has left the area.
When this is over, maybe he will come to see you.
I’ll be seeing them on Tuesday. I hang out with my nephews once a week or more.
An actively involved aunt is a blessing.
Lindsey Graham just tweeted that “the last thing we should do” is read the Boston bombing suspect his Miranda rights and tell him he can “remain silent.”
Fucking asshole.
Oh yeah, he’s using guerilla warfare techinques……creat more fear in the population, and take away their human rights……………..Graham and his Jihad solutions, sit back and watch the big guns coming out. I keep scratching my head for some fucking reason.
I’m sure his constituency will love that.
What happens to a senator when they promulgate illegal arrest of a US Citizen?
I know the answer.
George Bush is out telling everybody his brother JEB is the answer……….here comes the guns, here comes the guns, everybody get ready cause here comes the guns.
If Jeb is the answer I have to wonder if the question is who is the 2nd worst governor of Florida? He helped Marco Rubio rise to fame. Need I say more?
ecocatwoman………..no you need not say anything more,
This is “prolife” RT @Besito86: Critically ill woman faces jail time if she goes forward with lifesaving abortion. http://bit.ly/Z9vrZs
My internet is going off and on again. I will try to get a cartoon post up later because we damn well need it! I thought this head line was funny though:
At cops’ request, Dunkin’ Donuts stays open – Boston.com
There was one more thing, when I found out the the first suspect was run over by the cops, it immediately made me think of that scene in
http://www.hark.com/the-naked-gun-2/the-last-two-i-backed-over-with-my-car
I’m sorry but I need to laugh to be able to handle bad situations.
The suspect wasn’t run over by cops. He ran at the cops shooting at them, and when they fired back, the explosives he had attached to him blew up. It was reported that the little brother ran over him, but I never heard anything about cops doing it. The cops were all on foot during the firefight.
Nothing to be sorry about though. Laughter is the best medicine.
that goes to show you, last i heard was that the cops ran over him…which was when i saw it on morning joe this morning. Internet has been in and out and i have been busy with dinner. Just trying to lighten the mood tho…
I know. That’s a good thing. I just wanted to be accurate.
It wasn’t Sunil Tripathi: the anatomy of a misinformation disaster. http://bit.ly/XLAH4y ”
American ignorance forced Czech Republic Ambassador to release statement clarifying that they are not Chechnya http://www.mzv.cz/washington/en/czech_u_s_relations/news/statement_of_the_ambassador_of_the_czech.html …
Ridiculous.