Saturday, April 20, 2013

A few random ruminations on the Boston tragedy from a tattered nonentity.

A few random ruminations on the Boston tragedy from a tattered nonentity.
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"...Arkansas State Rep. Nate Bell (R) sent out an insensitive tweet Friday morning amid breaking news surrounding the Boston bomber manhunt.
Bell brought the topic of gun control into the mix when he tweeted:
"I wonder how many Boston liberals spent the night cowering in their homes
wishing they had an AR-15 with a hi-capacity magazine? #2A— Nate Bell (@NateBell4AR) April 19, 2013"
The problem with tweets is that so many human plankton, under-medicated whackjobs, twits can tweet anything, at anytime.
For example, Tsarnaey, the younger bomber caught in the boat last tweeted on Tuesday night:
"I'm a stress free kind of guy."
Right, and Justin Bieber is an adult.
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As Tsarnaey recovers in the hospital, he should be presented with a bill from the Boston city and region to cover the cost of the shut-down and the security forces..perhaps a billion or so.
“Boston and the entire area of Massachusetts around it represents a
billion-dollar-a-day economy,” Jim Diffley, chief regional economist at
research firm IHS said. “If everything stops, then you can think of it
as a billion-dollar loss...."
He could arrange a restitution plan of $10 dollars a month from his prison job, for the remainder of his life.
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That raises the issue of the death penalty.
Mass. has no death penalty, if he is tried at the local level.
But the feds. do have the penalty if he is tried thru DC; and is considered an enemy combatant.
If one is opposed to the death penalty, as I am, then the position needs to be consistent...without wobbling.
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NBC and Brian Williams did a superb job last night. Kudos to the non-cable network.
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Why were backpacks, bags allowed to be carried in to the Marathon finish line?
I believe these cannot be brought into a ball park, basketball arena etc.
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Surveillance cameras are everywhere, and can capture every move we make outdoors.
The Google map can show us walking from our house to the driveway.
It is these cameras that nailed the bombers.
If you are an evildoer, then surveillance by government,security forces are good.
If you are not engaged in evil doing, should we care if cameras are ubiquitous,everywhere?
I really do care, and I'm not an evildoer.
The bomber brothers apparently thought they were invisible men able to ignore public surveillance technology.
How dumb is that?
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Some reports have said that the brothers placed one of the bombs in front of the Russian flag at the Marathon finish line.
Haven't been able to confirm this as yet.
If true, this could be evidence that the brothers wanted a terrorist attack against Putin and Russia, and were able to pull it off in Boston.
The brothers are originally from Russia region near Chechnya, Chechnya nationalists have been fighting Russia for independence for 20 years.
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Was the security response, especially the Boston shut-down and the total number of security personnel, an overkill?
I certainly believe so at the finale at the Watertown boat capture.
The military helicopter infra-red technology had already spotted the bloody kid under the boat's tarp.
Having hundreds of security converge on the scene was an overkill.
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The aftermath of each of these terrorist episodes produces a fear that diminishes our civil liberties.
The security forces did a super job, no question.
But as NBC cameras showed the residents of Watertown cheering every security car that pulled out after the capture, the residents reactions are understandable.
But one also senses that such fear,such terrorism, can easily create conditions that would allow citizens to welcome a police state.

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