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Explosions near Boston Marathon finish line

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Re: Explosions near Boston Marathon finish line

#241

Post by tomjen3 »

TallGuyShort wrote: post #98
stevenameyer wrote: post #48

It's horrific to see this happen. I hope that people make it out of this ok, and they get to bottom of who did this. Seeing these kinds of senseless attacks on the innocent is just disgusting.

Agreed. I try to be very understanding of the fact that it is usually the winner that decides who is the "good guy" and the "bad guy" in history, but doing something like this is "bad guy" regardless of the reason. Nothing but a senseless tragedy. My thoughts are with anyone who has friends and family affected.

Agreed. I mean if you hate a country you blow up their military or you call in a bomb ahead of time so that nobody gets hurt.

In addition one explosion could be accidental, two not so.

Re: Explosions near Boston Marathon finish line

#242

Post by krcz »

CleanedStar wrote: post #220
krcz wrote: post #189

Do you think IRA (or one of its forks like Real IRA, Continuity IRA or one IRA extremist supporter) might have been involved? Today US supreme court has ruled to give tapes containing testimony to Irish police: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2013/apr/15/ira-tapes-police-su... .

This idea is completely inane. The Volunteers declared war against the England that was on their soil in 1916, that they would shift suddenly to a war against the U.S. is ridiculous. Also, purposefully killing civilians gathered en masse without warning is more along the lines of British Army terrorism (Bloody Sunday, Amritsar), not the Irish volunteers who give warnings and tend to attack military targets, back when…

Was it just the verdict that was uncertain or it even was unknown that it was to be given today? If it's the second, I have to agree.

Re: Explosions near Boston Marathon finish line

#244

Post by jlarocco »

pekk wrote: post #190
ConceitedCode wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At least I could take nail clippers on an airplane in 1999.

People die and lose their limbs, and your first move is apparently crying about how the government takes away your nail clippers.

Harsh as it may be, the people dying and losing their limbs will have no direct impact on my life, or on most other people's lives. It's a tragedy for their friends and loved ones, but I'm not in that group, so it's a very abstract thing - I feel bad, but it won't affect me personally.

Losing freedom has the potential to affect me personally, so I'm more concerned about it.

And I don't necessarily agree it's too early to discus the consequences of this. The authorities on the scene are handling the immediate situation, and there's very little to be done from 2K miles away.

Re: Explosions near Boston Marathon finish line

#245

Post by DucktourDreams »

bconway wrote: post #159
scarmig wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The aim of the WTC attack was to make a very symbolic action: the goal was to destroy three symbols of American power, its military, economic, and political might, though the last ended up physically unscathed. Obviously a huge number of deaths associated with it, but the symbolism was key. You knew exactly where the attackers stood--American power is evil--once you heard a description of the attacks. This, in contra…

Note: It took place on Patriot's Day, a Massachusetts and Maine holiday.

Also tax day.

Re: Explosions near Boston Marathon finish line

#246

Post by ne0codex »

noonespecial wrote: post #138

The worst part for me (and I really am feeling bad about this) is that I should be concerned about the victims right now, but I can't stop thinking about what freedoms I'll be losing as a result of this.

Another thing to focus on is the infrastructure. Telephone lines and data networks must be clogged, it just goes to show how much we need reliable networks and data infrastructures for such vital occurrences!

Re: Explosions near Boston Marathon finish line

#247

Post by njittam »

Osiris wrote: post #222
numbsafari wrote: post #209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Who knows. But after every crisis there should be a post mortem and we should learn from what went wrong. And why does every change in policy and approach have to be seen as a threat to anybody's freedoms? Not that many of the short-sighted response aren't just that, but this sort of knee jerk reaction seems just as unhealthy.

There's no way to prevent every crisis. Just because something bad happens doesn't mean that there is something that you could have done to stop it. Sometimes people just need to realize that things happen and we don't have to pass new laws and regulations every time something bad happens.

a security reseacher made a bomb from stuff he bought after going trough the costums at schiphol. so most of the security is just show off.

Re: Explosions near Boston Marathon finish line

#248

Post by VLM »

SODaniel wrote: post #156
recoiledsnake wrote: post #2

Edit: Boston police reporting at least 2 dead, 22 injured and 10 people losing limbs. http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/04/15/explosion-reported-near... Looks like there were two explosions. Picture: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BH6fCgFCQAERWMB.jpg:large More details http://www.wcvb.com/news/local/metro/Explosions-reported-nea... "Witnesses said several victims lost limbs, and the area was being evacuated. Many of the in…

The Boston Globe ‏@BostonGlobe 34s BREAKING NEWS: Police getting multiple reports of unexploded devices around Boston 3.38 pm Central time. Update: The Boston Globe ‏@BostonGlobe 28s RT @billy_baker: "It's not safe to be here." - Boston Police evacuating Commonwealth Avenue mall at Gloucester. 3.45 Central time. Update: The Boston Globe ‏@BostonGlobe 1m Boston Police: If anyone knows of any information call about exp…

The thing I don't get, is if you know there are multiple devices, any opfor with half a brain is going to put them in the mass transit for follow up. So why evac people when sheltering in place is almost certainly safer? The TLDR is don't create a juicy concentrated target when you know for certain that someone is currently aiming at juicy concentrated targets.

Also if its an ongoing event, shelter in place means people pay pretty close attention to their environment, but scrambling in terror every random direction means a great opportunity for the opfor to drop something bad in the chaos and possibly escape.

I'm not saying lock down everyone for hours (days?) or don't evac a known bad location, but...

Re: Explosions near Boston Marathon finish line

#249

Post by bmelton »

pekk wrote: post #168
noonespecial wrote: post #138

The worst part for me (and I really am feeling bad about this) is that I should be concerned about the victims right now, but I can't stop thinking about what freedoms I'll be losing as a result of this.

If you are feeling bad, why are you saying it? This feels like you are standing on a soapbox and it's hard to think you are actually sorry for it when you are doing it intentionally.

I felt the same way. My first thought was that I was glad there weren't any assault weapons involved, for which I was immediately ashamed. Immediately after that I was disgusted that Bloomberg.com wanted me to watch an ad for a new Mercedes before I could check on the well-being of my fellow humans.

I'm not proud of my thoughts, and I'm not proud of the hundred or so sarcastic remarks that I've thought of since I first heard the news either.

I am genuinely saddened that this happened, and my most sincere hope is that whomever did so is apprehended quickly and that nobody else is injured or killed while that happens. At the same time, the explosion looks (at least to me) like Tannerite, and I'm also thinking that perhaps Tannerite is going to get banned, or regulated, despite being, basically, iron oxide; which would make such a ban pretty futile.

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