Today I am a Bostonian

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Bill Glasheen
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Today I am a Bostonian

Post by Bill Glasheen »

Yesterday was a busy day for me. Like many, I was finishing up a few odd errands on the back end of filing taxes and arranging finances. I had a group meeting at my company where I was commended twice for one long-term and one emergency project I had commandeered. In the flux of driving to banks to move funds for Uncle Sam, I dropped off and picked up dry cleaning. I came back to my office where I work with people educated from around the world. I was noting to myself how I missed the Patriots Day baseball game (Red Sox beat Rays 3-2) when the person near my work cube - a former resident of India - told me about two bomb blasts

The first and most significant thing I remember is the fog of "war." I've been through a few chaotic events in my life. My response is very familiar. I get very calm and alert while those around me tend to turn stupid. I remember the Oklahoma City bombing where Katie Couric (embarrassingly enough a graduate of my alma mater) was on the TV asking people if it was the work of Muslim terrorists. (It wasn't...) I went to the Wall Street Journal online where it was reported that an event at the JFK library might have been part of it all. (It wasn't.) A dear friend texted me that her boyfriend said 20 were killed. (The tally is 3 and counting now.) I looked at the online comments after the articles where "the usual suspects" were spouting their theories, and hate for political groups they despised. I walked down the hall to the break room where someone (regrettably) had turned on MSNBC. There Chris Matthews was talking about actions of "the far right." Whenever Chris Matthews disagrees with someone, "the far right" rolls off his tongue like fluid trickles from a drunk urinating in a subway station. Did they find two unexploded bombs? Could it be true? (No...)

Late in the night I begin to see pictures. There was the charring on the pavement. There was unexploded powder near the epicenter of the bomb blast. (Amateurs...) There were bits of shrapnel here and there, likely pieces of random metal added to the bomb powder.

As of yet, we still don't know who did it. But it was Patriots Day - a holiday significant to New Englanders. It was The Boston Marathon - an international sporting event. The two blasts happened near the finish line in the crowd at about the average time a person finishes the race. Facts slowly emerge from the fog of misinformation and prejudiced thought.

I am calm. I am quietly angry. I won't forget. There but for the grace of God go I.
Bruce Lee wrote:Not being tense but ready.
Not thinking but not dreaming.
Not being set but flexible.
Liberation from the uneasy sense of confinement.
It is being wholly and quietly alive, aware and alert, ready for whatever may come.
Today I am a Bostonian.

- Bill
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Bill Glasheen
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Re: Today I am a Bostonian

Post by Bill Glasheen »

After the bombings...
  • Boston showed why it is one of the best centers of specialty medicine in the country. Maybe a little too much availability as researchers have shown (Wennberg et al), but most definitely the best. Casualties are limited.
    ...
  • The suspects are identified via videos from numerous cameras around the city. Thanks to Boston technology. Thanks to one of the bombing victims - a CITIZEN who lost his legs - for confirming that one of the two planted the backpack that killed the young boy and destroyed his own legs.
    ...
  • Recognition and broadcasting of the images flushed the suspects out.
    ...
  • The suspects ambushed and killed an MIT police officer in his car.
    ...
  • They robbed a 7-Eleven.
    ...
  • They hijacked a man driving a Mercedes SUV, and forced him to withdraw funds from his bank account. They subsequently let him go.
    ...
  • By then they attracted a little bit of attention. Ya think? However as scenarios like this go, law enforcement is one step behind. Eventually the law caught up, and a chase ensued. The suspects lobbed pipe bombs out the window.
    ...
    Nice... This is what strong state gun legislation gets you.
    ...
  • The older one (who spent half a year recently in Russia and attracted attention both from the KGB and the FBI) came out of the vehicle and started firing at officers. Most likely suicide by cop. When shot, the younger one backed the Mercedes over his body. I'm guessing this is planned.
    ...
  • Suspect number 2 escaped and hides. The city is in FORCED lockdown for hours as police and military personnel scour the area. They can't find him.
    ...
  • The city informed residents that they may come out. Only then did a CITIZEN find an armed Suspect Number 2 hiding in HIS boat on HIS property. For the record... in Virginia that's a license to shoot first and ask questions later. But we have to wait for law enforcement. There is a delay. There is a gun battle. Finally he is captured. He is injured and bleeding, but captured. (Most likely shot by law enforcement personnel.)
Congratulations to Boston's Finest. And a special congratulations to the citizens who made the captures possible.

No thanks to Massachusetts restrictive gun legislation. Only the bad guys got to kill with guns. And IEDs. And pipe bombs. And motor vehicles...

Just to cap it off with an exclamation point...

... Boston Red Sox - David Ortiz "This is Our ------- City" **

Today I am a Bostonian. I am Boston Strong.

- Bill
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Bill Glasheen
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Re: Today I am a Bostonian

Post by Bill Glasheen »

** Note - This video keeps being removed on YouTube. NESN has copyright privileges. I will be working to keep some feed of it up, likely a poor quality one that YouTube won't kill.
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Bill Glasheen
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Re: Today I am a Bostonian

Post by Bill Glasheen »

The following is an interview of the uncle of the suspects. It is in my opinion both raw and authentic.

NOTE - The closer you get to first-hand information, the more you'll understand the truth. You may need to bring knowledge and perspective to that information source, but the truth won't be too far away.

..... Raw Interview: Bombing Suspect Uncle Speaks After Capture

- Bill

P.S. - This too may come and go. I'm sorry if it is lost to you.
jorvik
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Re: Today I am a Bostonian

Post by jorvik »

What I don't undertsand is why Chechens are attacking America? Their beef is with Russia, which was an old enemy of the US. If anything it's like the IRA attacking the US :?
also seen this about Glen Beck?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PODZaaMTwfg

Now I don't know how valid he is , but I heard tales of a Saudi national being arrested and then deported 8O, but now nobdoy is talking about that ......anybody remember 9/11 when the Bin ladens were privately flown out of the US when all other flights were grounded?

just found this as well

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=duXO38rCFGQ

Curiouser and curiouser 8O
Valkenar
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Re: Today I am a Bostonian

Post by Valkenar »

The only really curious thing is that we keep consuming this worthless live-action media that, in its desperation to capture breaking news, makes stupid mistakes and thereby provides fodder for conspiracy theorists. Outfits like the NY Post make egregious blunders and then quietly take them back down without admitting "Oops, we ****** at journalism." Glen Beck is a joke.

This was not an inside job nor are Chechens (as a group) attacking America (as a nation). I'm pretty confident of that. These guys are individuals and we don't know enough about their motivations or affiliations to draw any other conclusions yet. .
jorvik
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Re: Today I am a Bostonian

Post by jorvik »

Yeah you can say all this Justin..but I'm in another ciountry looking in, I have no agenda regards American politics..I don't know if Glen Beck is a flake if he is telling lies shouldn't he be prosecuted?

http://www.theglobaldispatch.com/abdul- ... tmo-47371/

You see I remember all that Yak kah kah about WEapons of Mass destruction in Iraq.lies or what? and now we have more lies. Be honest now the true cranks and flakes were the ones who believed in WMD.and this is more of the same
Here is another take on it

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVoGU18L ... r_embedded


Oh and by the way on the same day as the Boston marathon, 26 people died in Iraq from bomb attacks
Valkenar
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Re: Today I am a Bostonian

Post by Valkenar »

jorvik wrote:Yeah you can say all this Justin..but I'm in another ciountry looking in, I have no agenda regards American politics..I don't know if Glen Beck is a flake if he is telling lies shouldn't he be prosecuted?
The UK has much stronger libel laws than we do. We err on the side of free speech, and rightly so, in my mind. Glen Beck is an obnoxious person and a purveyor of misinformation, but I wouldn't censor him.
jorvik
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Re: Today I am a Bostonian

Post by jorvik »

So what are you saying Justin? are you saying that Abdul Rahman Ali Al-Harbi, wasn't deported, that it was all a lie?
Valkenar
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Re: Today I am a Bostonian

Post by Valkenar »

jorvik wrote:So what are you saying Justin? are you saying that Abdul Rahman Ali Al-Harbi, wasn't deported, that it was all a lie?
I'm saying we don't know anything right now, and drawing all kinds of startling conclusions at this point is unwarranted. 'And for people in the media, it's irresponsible.

Maybe Abdul Rahman Ali Al-Harbi is relevant, maybe he isn't. Or maybe the whole thing was orchestrated by Obama's lovechild with Benazir Bhutto and financed by PETA and Haliburton. I won't be surprised if Al-Harbi is relevant, but I also won't be surprised if he just got noticed because of this, and isn't related. When you sweep up broken glass, you often get a dust bunny or two in the dustpan. And when you make a bad analogy, you sell oranges to the bicycle.
jorvik
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Re: Today I am a Bostonian

Post by jorvik »

The trouble with you justin is you are going about it arse about tit. The crank news is from folks who report about Saddam's weapons of mass destruction and his ties to Al Qaeda ( funny how they are helping the US in Syria :? )..or the folks like Benanke who said that the housing market was fine just before the crash......or dish out junk news like gay marriage etc without concentrating about the real problems and issues...personnaly, if somebody gets it so badly wrong ,then I don't listen to them anymore.....when they get it right I do, calling them disparaging names may make you feel clever, but really all you are doing is rejecting the truth.
I don't hold out much hope for the US when I see the huge military operation in Boston, all the police in combat gear with automatic weapons....and just to catch two young lads :oops:
jorvik
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Re: Today I am a Bostonian

Post by jorvik »

double post
Valkenar
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Re: Today I am a Bostonian

Post by Valkenar »

jorvik wrote:The crank news is from folks who report about Saddam's weapons of mass destruction and his ties to Al Qaeda ( funny how they are helping the US in Syria :? )..or the folks like Benanke who said that the housing market was fine just before the crash
I pretty much agree with this part. Our media ***** and our leaders are liars. Both of those are ultimately our own fault.
when they get it right I do, calling them disparaging names may make you feel clever, but really all you are doing is rejecting the truth.
Glen Beck is wrong way more often than he's right, especially with the nuttier conspiracy-theory stuff. In fact, has he ever been right about something that wasn't already known? That is, has he ever broken a story?
I don't hold out much hope for the US when I see the huge military operation in Boston, all the police in combat gear with automatic weapons....and just to catch two young lads :oops:
I'm not that impressed with the outcome here either, but two notes. One, it wasn't a military operation. Two, we like to overreact to things. Then again, we can afford to waste a few hundred thousand dollars failing to catch one kid bleeding out in a boat every few years. A lo tof people are over-reacting and calling it a police state. That's just not true. You were allowed to walk around, officials just asked you not two. I know several people who walked around during it and who live in the affected towns. I work in Newton, and debated going in anyway, and it would've been fine if I had. There were roadblocks, but that's not exactly police state.
jorvik
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Re: Today I am a Bostonian

Post by jorvik »

I'm just pointing out that you shouldn't dismiss alternative news sources. I only found out that cyprus style " bail ins" were part of UK and US policy by looking at alternative news media sources .it hasn't made a big splash on the main media when it should be front page news.
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Bill Glasheen
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Re: Today I am a Bostonian

Post by Bill Glasheen »

Well alrighty then... We have two of my favorite devil's advocates going at each other. And in a civil fashion. What's not to like about that? :-P

I'm with Justin in that I prefer a defense of the First Amendment. I may want to get a pistol out and shoot my television when I see Chris Matthews on MSNBC blaming all this on "the far right" well before anyone knew anything. But I think Chris does a wonderful job of making an arse out of himself without my help. Glen Beck is a well-known conservative loudmouth. If we have Chris and Glen going at each other, I figure yin is being balanced by yang. Just let them go for it.

All this said...
Justin wrote:This was not an inside job nor are Chechens (as a group) attacking America (as a nation). I'm pretty confident of that. These guys are individuals and we don't know enough about their motivations or affiliations to draw any other conclusions yet. .
Oh but by now I think we do. You are right that Chechens per se aren't attacking America. I never thought that. But radical Islam *is* by proxy attacking us.

The recipe was all there. You have the older brother - a bit of a loser - getting disillusioned with his life. He parties too much and can't get a job. And mom and dad split up. From what I can see of the interviews of mom, she was a loser b1tch herself. I'd have left her. In any case if there's something you learn about the type of individual who ends up in prison in the U.S., homes without a dad come high on the list of contributing factors. Once upon a time when Chechen dad was involved, older brother was working on a promising amateur boxing career. But the family disintegrated, and older son drifted. He applied for and got on welfare. How special... Mom insisted he get his act together by throwing himself into Islam. The extremists he ended up with were just like any other religious cult group of the U.S. in the 1970s they preyed on drifting, confused teens. They striped them of their identities and social contacts, and created a robot loyal to their cause. Mostly they were harmless in the U.S., with the exception of Reverend Jim Jones. But with radical Islam, you have groups looking for loser Palestinians who can be brainwashed into strapping bombs on themselves and blowing themselves up in a bus with women and children.

This older brother was heavily influenced by the preachings of two dead radical Islam leaders. One was Anwar al-Awlaki, who preached death to America and our way of life. The other was some unknown muslim Chechen separatist with an anti-Russia cause. Both were exterminated like the cockroaches they were - the former by the U.S. and the latter by Russia. But their online YouTube-generation preachings lived on. The bomb? From a Yemen publication (Inspire magazine) which also preached radical Islam.

Unlike Obummer, I'm calling it like I see it. No pussyfooting because we're afraid we might hurt someone's feeewings. If Islam proper can't publicly and repeatedly reject these extremists, then they deserve to be caught up in the broad brush characterization. I have no sympathy. When and if they actively participate in the rejection, then they can join the civilized world.

So older brother picks up a cause which he had nothing to do with - the U.S. presence in Afghanistan and Iraq. He's a little late, but WTF. We have infidels to kill. Women and children. Soft targets are yummy. Mmm...

Older brother is dead. Younger is about to be a pawn of U.S. Intelligence. He very may have cockmeat sandwiches in his future. * Order is restored.

- Bill

* Harold and Kumar reference
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