http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/16/us/explosions-reported-at-site-of-boston-marathon.html?hp
TRAGIC NEWS FROM BOSTON.
A third explosion occurred at the JFK Library in Boston.
A bit of personal news: COOPSTER emailed me he is safe and sound, home on the North Shore. . .
thanks be to God!
JustinO
TRAGIC NEWS FROM BOSTON.
A third explosion occurred at the JFK Library in Boston.
A bit of personal news: COOPSTER emailed me he is safe and sound, home on the North Shore. . .
thanks be to God!
JustinO
18 comments:
What a horrible tragedy. My bet is that we need look no farther than the shores of this republic for the person(s) responsible for this horror.
I would look to the right wing "patriots" who believe that exploding bombs in Boston on tax day is the thing to do to make their "point".
I agree with Richard... most likely domestic. Also this week is the Oklahoma City and Waco anniversaries.
Sadly, the coward(s) snuffed out the life of an 8-yo boy.
That said, no-one should feel this kind of event won't happen in their town. For me, 2 events this past year have hit close to home.
One should make up their minds NOW, what will you do, how will you respond, any escape routes?
Add children to the mix... will you protect them or save yourself? Easier said than done, i know.
Thanks Richard and Jimm for your comments. Good duggestions to think about and make some decisions.
The last few weeks of the NK pres breathing threats and playing games is unsettling. . I think there is some sort of personal planning one can do/make. . .decide on. When "IT" is happening is not the time to figure out what/how to do.
I am thinking. . . thanks. justin
My sympathies, of course. The consensus of informed Aussie opinion also thinks it's home grown. For me, the sheer frustration of having to accept that such evil has always and will always exist is almost unbearable. Sadly, bringing the perpetrators to justice always seems too little, too late.
Jimm's right. As the boy scouts say, be prepared.
Yes indeedy, like the BS, "Semper paratus". . . .ehyah.
For those who think more gun control laws are a panacea, consider this episode as well as the examples of the Ted Kaczynski, Tim McVey, Eric Rudolph, Andrew Kehoe, the Haymarket and Los Angleles Times labor bombings, the Klan bombings, and a host of others in American history. No matter how many laws you enact the miscreants of society will find a way to inflict devastation.
Yeah j, and no matter how many laws are enacted, the miscreants will continue to run Wall Street ponzi schemes, scam little old lady's, and drag race on public roads.
Hear! Hear! Hark!
D'accord... . .Agree. . . ;-))
Ooooo, Jimm, you are naughty!
Anyway, what do you expect from a violent society? Check out what Hollywood has been churning out for umpteen decades, check out the cop shows on TV, check out the video games, check out the two wars fought on American soil. Aren't all those things indicative of what you would expect from a society that enshrines in its constitution every citizen's right to bear arms?
I think most people would jump to action in a time like that.
What sucks is the other 7 million who can only stand by and scratch our heads and throw blame at others.
Raise your children to be kind. That's the only law we need.
Hi Stew. . ."Teach your children to be kind. . ."
Maybe that needs to be spelled out. . like some basic principles? Do we need to be taught what IS "kind"?
hmmmmm
GARY, do you know if other nations have "constitutional right to bear arms"? Does Australia?
Never thought (or had to) about this before.
My issue is not with the instruments criminals employ to create harm, but rather the criminals themselves. Is the cure to bombing the banning of pressure cookers, kitchen timers, ball bearings, nails and rental trucks? That is what makes the gun ban crowd short-sighted. Even if all those who purchase a firearm have to register the sale, criminals will still pay to have third parties make the purchase for them. This happens all the time. The key to this whole thing is the identifying those most likely to kill, and keeping track of them. The slaughter at Sandy Hook has spawned a whole anti-gun crusade, but people forget that the perpetrator was, as is often the case, a bright loner. Even if he didn't have an indulgent, gun-collecting mother, this kid is just the kind who would make a bomb from household items and instructions from the Internet. Civil libertarians will complain until the cows come home about profiling, but profiling is at the core of good police work. If something doesn't look kosher, make an inquiry, and keep the extremists under surveillance.
JustinO... not sure about other nations, but Oz doesn't have a right to bear arms reference in its constitution. Federation didn't happen here until 1901. Prior to that, all states were separate British colonies. We didn't have a need for civilians to be armed. It's never been an issue. We had no war of independence... it was all done with pen and ink and a few shrimps on the barbie.
However, that's not to say civilians don't own weapons. But after the 1996 Port Arthur Massacre (35 people shot by a madman), 300,000 semi automatic weapons were confiscated by the government (a conservative government, at that) without much of a protest. Aussies were in shock. Nothing on that scale had ever happened in Oz before, so gun owners willingly surrendered their arms.
Gun ownership is strictly controlled in Oz and most people don't own them. All gun owners need a license. Possession of an unlicensed firearm carries a very stiff penalty.
OZ sounds like a very civil nation! Good!
Yesterday's senate defeat on further gun control failed shamefully. . .but I do believe the real cause goes back to the GOP agenda adopted when President Obama was first elected. The major GOP effort, aside from keeping their cushy jobs, was to be sure Obama failed in everything. They said so publicly! And it rests on this premise: "No Black Man is going to rule our country."
Yesterday was a day of SHAME in our country. .. we have too many, btw. . when 90% of American voters want stricter gun control laws and the legislators refuse to do what they were elected to do. Perhaps they need some outside citizen control: a cut in pay every time they fail to work for "the Common Good". By now, after last year's miserable performance, they'd be owing the Government $$$ returns!
Come on, Justin. Do you seriously believe that this legislative failure is attributable to GOP racism? Or job preservation? Obama's graceless whining and name calling can't cover up the fact that he seriously misjudged public sentiment on this issue. Democrats may control the Senate, but even they will not put their jobs on the line for something they believe their constituents won't support. The Second Amendment was bred into our culture in colonial times, when all colonists were required to be "in service" to the militia and have their own arms. In New England they had to fight wars against hostile indians and an occasional European power. (Remember King Phillip's War and the Pequoit War?) Thereafter they recalled the horror of having standing armies of occupation on their soil, and how the British would not have been defeated without the help of state militias. A lot of gun owners, led by the NRA, have a fear of centralized authority disarming them. You, a product of urbanized culture, may not subscribe to this fear, but there definitely is an historic basis for it. If you go into that room in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts that contains its marvelous portraits of Boston's patriots (especially Gen. Henry Knox, the Boston bookstore owner and brilliant artillarist), ask yourself how many of them would have supported gun licensing and registration.
In a larger sense, people oppose government measures of this sort because they are useless, bureaucratic window dressing. I can assure you from personal experience that most of the illegal firearms in the northeast come from gunstores patronized not by felons, who can't pass any background test, but rather their surrogate friends and girlfriends who can.
I don't expect this president, whose experience before elected office was as an urban community organizer for socialist causes, to understand heartland values, but I believe Harry Reid knew this legislation didn't have a snowball's chance in hell of getting through the Senate. Obama should have listened to him but Obama's conception of the world is too sophomoric to appreciate the larger picture.
One more thing: You are seriously mistaken if you think congressional jobs are "cushy". Every election cycle there are a raft of young congressmen who can't afford Washington housing and live in their offices. My congressman does. The ones making the money are the lobbists. A Democrat friend of mine spent 28 years in the U.S. House without accumulating a personal fortune. Now, as a legislative partner in a large law firm, his income is in the seven figures. I actually don't begrudge him his new fortune.
And as for cries of "racism", they have, regrettably, become the new last refuge of scoundrels and minority excuse makers.
I suggest you spend some time working outside the Northeast upon graduation.
Remember JustinO that the GOP agenda, and that of the NRA, is to prevent a government from usurping the will of the people. How ironic. Now it's the GOP and NRA usurping the will of the people.
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