Gotta love this guy going all south side end (sorry, the South Side is the ‘Burgh) on one of the Infowars “reporters” hanging around Boston trying to peddle the false flag nonsense:
Memo to the kids- if you are going to cuss someone out, that is how you do it.
Related asshattery:
Former Rep. Ron Paul said the police response to the Boston Marathon bombings was scarier than the bombing itself, which killed three and wounded more than 250.
“The Boston bombing provided the opportunity for the government to turn what should have been a police investigation into a military-style occupation of an American city,” Paul, a Texas Republican, wrote today on the website of the libertarian writer Lew Rockwell. “This unprecedented move should frighten us as much or more than the attack itself.”
Paul said the scenes of the house-to-house search for the younger bombing suspect in suburban Watertown, Mass., were reminiscent of a “military coup in a far off banana republic.”
“Forced lockdown of a city,” he wrote. “Militarized police riding tanks in the streets. Door-to-door armed searches without warrant. Families thrown out of their homes at gunpoint to be searched without probable cause. Businesses forced to close. Transport shut down.”
What is he talking about? It was a police investigation.
Redshirt
It was kind of chilling to see the full power of the police state rolled out. I got no issues with how things went down in Boston, but it was a disturbing spectacle.
H.E. Pennypacker, Wealthy Industrialist
That just made my day.
aimai
I hate to say how much I love that video. I would gay marry that motherfuckin’ foul mouthed bostonian in a heartbeat. Adorable!
aimai
@Redshirt:
When the firemen and the EMT’s rush in do we call it the “full power of the health care state?” For god’s sake if the goddamned police can’t do their goddamned jobs when the city is bombed what do we have them for? This is like the one time in my adult life that I think the poliice (more or less) did their job.
MikeJ
@Redshirt: What exactly was chilling?
jl
Nice low key leisurely invective, appropriately paced and responsive to the situation. I give it all tens, except, maybe a point or two off for lack of adjectival richness and variation.
So, thanks, I will add this to my collection.
Villago Delenda Est
Well, Paul and his vile spawn would have no problem at all with such tactics being used in Compton to keep the mud people in line.
Neither would have any problem with dealing with Nat Turnerism anywhere. Sort of like their hero Ronaldus Magnus dealing with the Black Panther invocation of Second Amendment remedies in Sacramento in 1967.
wvng
I need a cigarette.
Hell, I need to start smoking so I can smoke a cigarette.
drouse
I’m ashamed to say that when I first heard the news, the FBI came to mind. My thought was that someone should have told them that they shouldn’t put the real bombs on the shelf next to the fake ones.
Que Sonny Bono in the gift shop.
ricky
Well, you gotta admit, the King has no right to quarter his troops in the homes of the good colonists in Cambridge, but anyone with “fucking half a brain” knows the Governor can order you to stay inside your houses and send teams of six armed men to search said home without a warrant because a wounded teenager is on the loose.
Redshirt
@MikeJ: The armored numbers of it all.
As I said and will say it again and no doubt have to repeat soon enough, I have no issues with how the events in Boston played out. At the same time, I was disturbed by the show of force not for this specific event, but in general.
What we witnessed was the result of 25 years of the Drug War, and 10 years of the War on Terror, and who knows how this massive, militarized police force will be used in the future.
I am anti police militarization.
Ben Franklin
APC’s and other armored vehicles versus a BB gun and potlicker ordnance. Full military accoutrements and tactical gear. What, a thousand, two thousand rounds fired at a boat?
Were they trying to ignite any black powder IED’s Jahar may have had? The houses in the vicinity had occupants who were told to stay inside for their own safety. I don’t think public safety is what they had in mind. It was their own. And why shouldn’t they empty their mags for their own safety; cuz it was a police investigation.
Comrade Mary
“Keep running your piss flaps” needs to be a tag. Or a tasteful tattoo.
ranchandsyrup
@Comrade Mary: I used to use that one and “cock-holster/missle-receiver” until I was told that those demean women and gay men. I still use “soup-cooler”, though.
Neddie Jingo
“Keep moving your pissflaps…”
Gotta remember that one. Fine, fine invective, considering it was entirely improvised.
(Wait a minute… Maybe it wasn’t improvised, a-a-and this was a false-flag video to make me think that they think that he thinks that….)
(Edit: Aaaaand as I was typing that bit o’ nonsense, here comes ol’ Square-Out-of-One-Eye-and-Round-Out-of-the-Other to make me look like a fifth-grader trying to read in Cambridge…)
Violet
I thought the lockdown of the city was kind of amazing. The sheer number of tanks and other type vehicles on the streets was eye-popping. All for one injured teenager, although they didn’t know at the time if he was the only one or part of a group.
NonyNony
@ricky:
Didn’t happen – the governor requested that people help the police by staying off the streets. There was no such order.
Except that again – didn’t happen. The police asked people to help in the manhunt and the people of Boston and surrounding areas helped in the manhunt. There is nothing terribly sinister about this unless you ascribe to the belief that helping the police is always wrong.
If you can point me to a single story where people were arrested/detained for being on the street or one where the police forced their way into someone’s home without a warrant during this manhunt I’d be right there with you. But I haven’t seen that – everything I’ve heard from friends in Boston and from the news as reported has instead indicated that this was handled reasonably well, given how stupid the whole thing was.
Comrade Mary
@ranchandsyrup: So how does calling a mouth “piss-flaps” demean women and gay men specifically? I’m genuinely confused.
MomSense
Hearing that kid makes me miss living in Mass.
Chyron HR
@Ben Franklin:
It’s very strange how a single bullet in the hands of a government employee is a crime against humanity, but any firearm owned by a private citizen (including ones who are currently attemping to kill their fellow citizens) is a mere “peashooter”. Go figure!
eric
I think that phone records will reveal that Bill Clinton told the governor to order martial law at the request of Biden who was acting at the request of Obama who was acting at the request of Hillary, since everyone knows she really won the primary in 2008.
ranchandsyrup
@Comrade Mary: i agree that I wasn’t very clear. offensive to women would be the answer for piss flaps as the term is used to describe a vagina.
I miss the look on dudes’ faces when I tell them to shut their cockholster, but I understand the thinking behind how it may offend. Soup cooler’s gotta do for me. But everyone else is free to insult as they see fit.
Another Halocene Human
“south side”, more like “South End”, listen to his accent. He says he lives in Back Bay and I believe it. He doesn’t have a working class accent.
ETA: okay, my bad, Cambridge
the speaker might not even be a MA native, but he uses the lingo: “retarded” “nudnik”, etc
roc
How many of these pictures would you tag “police investigation”?
And don’t worry: there really are some pictures in there that look like police performing an investigation. There are even clearly very-serious police with non-standard weaponry performing what is clearly an urgent, high-stress investigation.
And those are great reference points from which you can compare and contrast against the ones that don’t look like police actions whatsoever.
eric
@ranchandsyrup: is there anything wrong with douchebag that I should be made aware of. I am reluctanty cutting back on c_cks_cker. the hard Ks just cant be beat
Ben Franklin
@NonyNony:
If you can point me to a single story where people were arrested/detained for being on the street
The totality of the cooperation is both understandable and disconcerting. After 9/11 folks seem anxious to capitulate to the authorities, because of fear. AUMF/Patriot Act were happily accepted by the population, as a whole.
Also, the police knocked, rather than kicking the door down. Politeness and plausible deniability goes a long way.
bemused
Fantastic. Love it.
weaselone
@Ben Franklin:
And yet the suspect was brought in alive and the other probably would have lived had he not been run over by his brother.
I keep trying to figure out how, if as you see to suggest the police wanted him dead, he is still alive. It wouldn’t have been difficult to kill him before he reached the hospital.
Lavocat
Shithead should try peddling this shit in Southie.
Cambridge does disorderly. Southie does straight-out, broken beer bottle assault with a face-kicking chaser.
Ben Franklin
@Chyron HR:
How do you mean?
Another Halocene Human
The Hispanic lady might be a Cambridge native. Big Latino population in North Cambridge.
ranchandsyrup
@eric: Lulz. I think they’re all funny and say go ahead full steam. Just relating my own experiences and my subsequent choices. No bright line here. I’d go full Al Swearengen if I could. Risk/reward prop isn’t right for me but may be for others.
Another Halocene Human
@Redshirt: It should always be disturbing because we’re well aware of how that police power can be misused.
I remember going to some protests in Boston and the riot squad was out in those fucking black uniforms. But it was a peaceful (and permitted) even and the cops were laughing and joking with the protestors, weapons were not out.
Eternal vigilance blah blah blah.
Rosalita
a fabulously articulate and profane putdown…love it
Ben Franklin
@weaselone:
I keep trying to figure out how, if as you see to suggest the police wanted him dead, he is still alive
You’re a victim of the local propagandists, my friend. I said I would be surprised if they took him alive. I’m glad he’s alive. It’s the only hope we have of getting at the root of this.
Also, if they really wanted him alive, why would they swiss-cheese the boat?
Lavocat
@ricky: Funny, I don’t recall anyone declaring martial law. And if I lived there, manhunt or not, they could kiss my freedom-loving ass, because I would disregard their so-called – and grossly illegal – “orders”.
ruemara
@weaselone: It’s not what happened, it’s what people want to believe happened, that’s what’s important.
Hoodie
Paul is full of shit, as usual, but the lockdown did turn out to be overdone. However, that judgement does rely on some hindsight and doesn’t account for context. These guys killed one cop and they put another in intensive care in a shootout in which they were chucking bombs. They probably thought that the surviving brother was alone, but couldn’t be sure. When faced with that situation, the default of the commanders is to use what they have because you don’t want to be the guy whose decision to go light led to another dead cop. As a result of the post 9/11 hysteria, big city police forces have a lot of paramilitary gear, so they used it. They still were pretty restrained, although I think the younger brother was lucky that boat was an inboard and he was laying on the opposite side of the engine block from where that last volley of shots hit. That side of the boat was pretty chewed up and fiberglass alone wouldn’t have saved him.
Ben Franklin
@ruemara:
Yes, your belief system is quite evident.
Mezz (fpa Michael2)
@Redshirt:
I agree, it was unsettling, but I have to say that locked up in my JP apt., I felt entirely safe!
To Ron Paul: why don’t you go FUCK YOURSELF. Aren’t there black folks for you to hate on somewhere you bigoted, small minded PRICK?
To Republicans in general: will you make up your fucking feeble minds already! Are we in the Commonwealth [God Save It!!]: a. sally little liberal nanny-state effeminate types, or are we b. a crypto-fascist police state?? Because we can’t be both you f***tards.
Davis X. Machina
@Another Halocene Human: North Cambridge has always been a hodge-podge. Johnny Hodges, the lead alto in the Ellington band, came out of North Cambridge, as did former Cardinal Humberto Madeiros.
Redshirt
@Another Halocene Human: A lot of it is, I’m almost sad to say, aesthetics. What’s with the all black look?
I remember the 2004 Dem Convention in Boston. I was walking back from work through the Commons and the police had cut off access to the State House with hundreds of cops in full black body armor. There were no people, no protestors, I didn’t know what was going on specifically, but damn. Was it an intimidating sight – rows and rows of identical black clad armored “cops”.
Again, it was chilling.
weaselone
@Ben Franklin:
Out of curiosity, if authorities posted signs warning people not to jump off a large suspension bridge and people by and large complied would you be disconcerted by that near universal compliance and celebrate those patriots bold enough to flout the heavy hand of government and jump of the bridge to their deaths?
Keith G
@ranchandsyrup: Cock holster demeans me?
No fucking way. Put that back in rotation. I’d never use it, but it’s metaphoric awfulness deserves to be heard.
Higgs Boson's Mate
Tanks? That BPD plays hardball. Ron Paul’s idiot son is doing a bang up job of positioning himself as the front runner for the 2016 GOP primaries.
gbear
@Violet:
…although by this time they knew he was willing to injure and kill a large number of people in a crowded street, murder a university cop, and lob bombs out of a car while trying to escape. It’s not like he was some kid who’d shoplifted a pair of jeans.
The police response was overwhelming, but everybody already knew what these guys were capable of.
f space that
The “Swatting” of American police departments started decades ago, what did this shithead do or say about it back in the day ?
ruemara
@Ben Franklin: In facts? Yes. I’m proud of that. Your belief in whatever floats your conspiracy minded boat, is also in evidence. Whatever, you’re not relevant to being informed, your just a person posting links on the internet. Dime a hundredweight.
p.a.
@ranchandsyrup: piss flaps is a new one to me. Is it a Bostonism? I’m just down the road in RI, and have never heard it; and I don’t hang out with people who would be averse to using the phrase.
ranchandsyrup
@Keith G: So I was informed. WAs told that it is in effect, calling someone a “faggot” by inferring that his mouth is a receptacle for penii. So I cut it out in an abundance of caution.
The Moar You Know
Paul has a point. It’s just not a good one, given that his party unilaterally decided that we could allow people unfettered access to explosives and military firearms. When you’ve armed America like it’s a war zone, you get war zone police tactics. You kind of don’t have a choice.
When Paul wants to talk legitimate, real, forceful gun control I’ll be nothing but ears for his follow-on about “overreach of police rights”.
Ben Franklin
@weaselone:
Out of curiosity, if authorities posted signs warning people not to jump off a large suspension bridge and people by and large complied would you be disconcerted by that near universal compliance and celebrate those patriots bold enough to flout the heavy hand of government and jump of the bridge to their deaths?
Apples and oranges. Now if the authorities wanted you to use the toll bridge for the fees, but you used a free bridge which was condemned as unsafe by the same authorities, not because it wasn’t safe, but because of lost revenue, and you were too fucking ignorant to see the writing on the wall, and subsequently continued to use the toll bridge, then I would be disconcerted.
Ben Franklin
ruemara Says:
In facts? Yes. I’m proud of that
You’re in sole possession of all the facts? I’d like to hear some.
ranchandsyrup
@p.a.: unsure. I got it from military people.
Howard Beale IV
Alex Jones is a carney catering to the conspiracy class. He takes some of the US government’s past conspiracies and their atrocities and makes a living off of them.
How sick is THAT?
Soonergrunt
These people have a tenuous connection to reality, at best.
Higgs Boson's Mate
@The Moar You Know:
Nailed it. The irony is that if Democrats pushed to cut down on the militarization of the police then Paul would be the first to accuse them of being soft on crime.
mike with a mic
@Comrade Mary:
It’s the same thing as cock holster. It’s implying they have a dick in their mouth. Or it can be saying they have a c#nt for a mouth.
You can take either as a sort of dirty thing to say in general because human sex organs are dirty in a funny way… or in a sexist or homophobic way.
Having been in the navy though there are all sorts of fantastic ways to call someones mouth a different bodily orifice or imply one has dick jammed in it. You can even combine to the two slurs.
Higgs Boson's Mate
@mike with a mic:
One of our favorite alternatives was “Gimme an air start.”
Another Halocene Human
@ricky: This is the sort of debased attitude towards public safety that leads to having the loosest gun safety laws of any first world (ha ha) nation.
The whole point of the powers and restrictions of the public safety regime is to give them extraordinary powers for a purpose–but for that purpose only, not to trample all over the innocent (and we’re all innocent until they can prove otherwise in a court of law), not to pursue personal agendas and abuse their station, not to intimidate dissenting voices in the public sphere.
That some public prosecutors have made what we consider illegitimate use of their discretionary powers does not logically lead to the conclusion that all use of police powers is illegitimate.
JWL
If only democratic politicians would represent their constituencies with the eloquence of the man from Cambridge taking down that right wing fool/tool.
It’s also the first time I’ve actually heard, as opposed to having just read, someone referred to as an ‘asshat’.
The Moar You Know
@mike with a mic: My favorite: “If I wanted any lip out of you I’d just wipe it off my dick.”
Ben Franklin
@Another Halocene Human:
That some public prosecutors have made what we consider illegitimate use of their discretionary powers does not logically lead to the conclusion that all use of police powers is illegitimate
No, but always deferring to trust, kinda makes you a Tragic Figure.
Higgs Boson's Mate
@The Moar You Know:
OR, “If want some of your lip I’ll scrape it off my zipper.”
PeorgieTirebiter
” …you fvking shit-heel.” The guy was well versed in the classics.
Another Halocene Human
@eric: I suspect douche is a roundabout “pussy” reference. I wish the word were “enema bag” (lacks that same ring to it, though) because in my experience douchebags tend to be FULL OF SHIT.
I guess I could call them colostomy bags. :DDD
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
@weaselone: You should see how he celebrates all of those Brit’s that left their lights on when the Germans bombed London.
Villago Delenda Est
@f space that:
As long as the “Swatterized” Police are being used on mud people, it’s absolutely not an issue.
However, if it’s used in white neighborhoods, well, it’s a combination of the Gestapo and the NKVD.
mike with a mic
@The Moar You Know:
Oh yeah. Proper Navy swearing involves just going for the most shockingly offensive and creative crap you can come up with and going on a tear till you run out of things to say. Full Metal Jacket was actually pretty tame compared to some of the tirades I’ve heard. Once you get over the initial shock it can be a beautiful thing.
It’s also amazingly hilarious to lob it at civilians who have never been in the military. Most of them have no idea just how offensive someone can be when they consider offending people to be a competitive event.
Another Halocene Human
@Hoodie: Probably not overdone in that the perp had nowhere to go and the entire populace was alerted to what was going on, plus the police were mobilized, meaning that he got caught and caught quick.
Probably somebody is going to take some ribbing for underestimating just how far a motivated teenager can run, though.
One also has to wonder about the utility of dogs. Couldn’t find a kid dripping blood?
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
@Ben Franklin: Cause you know, there was no evidence that deferring to the police would be a good idea. Nothing like killing people with bombs, killing a cop with a gun, throwing home made hand grenades, or even being willing to run over a relative to get away.
Villago Delenda Est
@Ben Franklin:
The alternative you are proposing is Infowar’s bread and butter.
ricky
Going all south side on outside agitators, circa 1963 – 1965.
Another Halocene Human
@p.a.: I never heard piss flaps either but I did hear (very occasionally) cunt.
I don’t think asshat is a Bostonism but you can be sure we use it. It’s possible that eat a bag of dicks came from there, though.
Cacti
Has Papa Doc weighed in on why the free market failed to keep a fertilizer plant from detonating in his home state?
Bob In Portland
Remember Sibel Edmonds, the FBI translator who way back in the Dubya administration was enjoined by the federal courts from revealing the names and deeds of certain U.S. intelligence players, mostly working in the Middle East? She couldn’t write their names but posted 21 pictures of these guys (to include my former Congressman, the late Tom Lantos)?
One of the pictures was of a CIA muckety-muck, Graham Fuller.
Now, remember Uncle Ruslan, who when his nephews were named as suspects, stood in his front yard and called them “losers”? Ruslan is married to Graham Fuller’s daughter. Ruslan has worked for USAID and a Halliburton subsidiary.
So, to summarize, the uncle of the two bombers has a long history with the oil industry in the Mideast, married into a CIA family and worked for a US agency known as a place where the CIA tucks away its people they send overseas.
So just because right-wing wackos are marching around a dubious false flag operation, it doesn’t necessarily mean that there isn’t something hinky going on.
It’s a small world after all.
Ben Franklin
@Villago Delenda Est:
The alternative you are proposing is Infowar’s bread and butter.
What would that be, the de-militarization of our local law enforcement?
If yes, then I agree with that alternative.
Another Halocene Human
It’s weird, but the Alex Jones video guy looks disturbingly like this guy who has trolled up an MBTA rail forum since a year ago. Also, claimed to have a major in psychology but what calling mentally ill people “crazy”. It would fit, too, internet tough guy bullshit but totally punking out when challenged in public.
mike with a mic
@Another Halocene Human:
Nope, Seattle. There is a place called Dicks Drive In there. So “eating a bag of Dick’s” was a smart ass way of saying going there to eat. And of course the phrase caught on.
Asshat is an internet thing, I first heard that around the same time as cock-smoking-ass-goblin, which is a good head turner.
kc
@weaselone:
Hm. That could be one way to reduce the wingnut population.
“JUMPING OFF BRIDGE IS FORBIDDEN BY ORDER OF PRESIDENT OBAMA”
Villago Delenda Est
@mike with a mic:
Or as several NCOs of my acquaintance used to call them, with superb contempt, “fucking civilian slime”.
Ben Franklin
@Belafon (formerly anonevent):
you said “: Cause you know, there was no evidence that deferring to the police would be a good idea. Nothing like killing people with bombs, killing a cop with a gun, throwing home made hand grenades, or even being willing to run over a relative to get away.”
I said (upthread) The totality of the cooperation is both understandable and disconcerting. After 9/11 folks seem anxious to capitulate to the authorities, because of fear. AUMF/Patriot Act were happily accepted by the population, as a whole.
Also, the police knocked, rather than kicking the door down. Politeness and plausible deniability goes a long way.
weaselone
@Ben Franklin:
There was a reasonable expectation at that time that the suspect actually did pose a risk to the safety of the public and that staying in would actually aid in the search for said suspect. At the same time, I am unaware of any profit motive on the part of the involved agencies so I suspect my scenario is actually closer to what happened than yours.
Villago Delenda Est
@Ben Franklin:
No, the alternative of being a paranoid dickweed about everything reflexively.
“Dickweed” being another wonderful thing I picked up from one of my NCOs…
Omnes Omnibus
@Ben Franklin: Why is cooperation with the police during a search for a bombing suspect disconcerting?
NotMax
So, let’s review.
First, the lockdown was always announced as voluntary, with no charging or arrest authority towards those venturing outdoors. Right in the middle of it, Boston’s mayor went on the air suggesting that people who had already traveled to work before the mass transit shutdown call friends to drive into the city and pick them up to take them back home.
Gov. Duval called in units of the National Guard (*cough* militia *cough*) to assist. Are they supposed to leave their military vehicles on base and empty out the local Hertz lot to get there?
The Boston and Newtown police requested assistance from other jurisdictions. Response to that was large, including some coming from New Hampshire to assist strategically, undeputized, where able, freeing up local force members from secondary positions and tasks.
Yes, police departments are too often heavily up-armored and some have armories grossly overstuffed with materiel in relation to proportionality of mission. But in Mr. Paul’s worldview, that should be a local budgetary matter, no?
While some of the video may have been gripping, it was in no way representative of the totality of the situation (no director in any control room is going to air extended shots of empty streets in lieu of footage with movement and tension). Choosing to rant against selected snippets aired repeatedly as if they were a full-on documentary record of the entirety is ludicrous.
Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again)
@ricky:
Yes, because the Boston conspiracy is as evident as the Jim Crow laws on the books in Dixie circa 1963.
Ben Franklin
@Villago Delenda Est:
No, the alternative of being a paranoid dickweed about everything reflexively
Even Alex Jones can hit the broadside of the barn, occasionally.
Ben Franklin
@Omnes Omnibus:
It’s all there upthread for you to review. I am not your teacher.
Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again)
@NotMax:
FTW!
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
@Ben Franklin: Yeah, you keep saying understandable and disconcerting. I’m trying to imagine a situation you would find understandable and not disconcerting: New York after 9/11 (“Please stay away from downtown, this is for your safety and health”), a large chemical spill or flooding (“Please head to the nearest shelter”).
If you’re ever in the Dallas area, and a tornado comes through, please make sure you wear a sign so that while I’m doing my duties as part of CERT (community emergency response team), I can completely ignore you. You’d really love having some guy in a green vest telling you where to go, wouldn’t you?
Villago Delenda Est
@Ben Franklin:
You really are as idiotic as you post, aren’t you?
hilzoy
I didn’t think (the video) that was all that great. But then, being from there, I’ve heard some pretty great takedowns in my day.
I also didn’t have a problem at all with the government response to the marathon bombings. The police *asked* people to stay inside, for a good reason. People did. This is the way it should be: you draw a distinction between the government’s legitimate and illegitimate requests, and only freak out when confronted with the second.
It would have been different had the lockdown lasted for a week. But it didn’t, and since it was called off *before* they caught him, we don’t have to speculate about whether they would have kept it going longer.
Omnes Omnibus
@Ben Franklin:
No, I have been lucky throughout my life to have had very good and professional teachers.
Hey, did you know that warrantless search are perfectly legal with consent?
ranchandsyrup
If I hear the out of context Ben Franklin (the actual one, not our off-brand troll) quote about Liberty and security one more time today I’m gonna lose it. Fucking bumpersticker wisdom.
scav
@Villago Delenda Est: Which of course makes me think of the hobby of Freaking the Mundanes.
Horse-Startling as verb, active.
Ben Franklin
@Belafon (formerly anonevent):
If you’re ever in the Dallas area, and a tornado comes through
That would be understandable. The disconcerting part would still be there, but it would be a different concern.
Patrick
I bet whatever that had this happened in his safe city in Texas, Paul would be the first one to call for the cops to do whatever. It is easy to criticize after the fact and when you are not impacted one bit.
Big R
@Redshirt: I can’t remember the exact quote, but it comes from a Terry Pratchett novel out of the mouth of Sam Vimes, and says something along the lines of:
mike with a mic
@hilzoy:
I don’t know how anyone considered it a “lockdown” they didn’t “lockdown” anything. People were free to go about their business but advised not to because there was an actual mad bomber on the loose. Just as people were asked if their homes could be searched.
Sure, it was rather insane that two idiots managed to shut down an entire city for as long as they did, and the SWAT + APCs was a bit nuts, but nothing was locked down and nobody was forced to do anything.
Ben Franklin
@Villago Delenda Est:
Projection is your strongest trait…..and you like to stew in your own juices.
ChrisNYC
@NotMax: Exactly.
By the time Ron Paul and his son are done, people are going to have even less of an idea about the Constitution, about actual rights and exercise of them than they do now. Ron Paul certainly knows that searches can and often are done perfectly legitimately on consent (as they were in Boston). But he doesn’t care about pushing nonsense about WARRANTS! because his whole show is not about the Constitution or rights. It’s about sowing more distrust of government — “BE AFRAID OF THE GOVERNMENT. IT IS THE ENEMY.” (Godwin, but A. Hitler of course played the same card.)
I’m waiting for some idiot to start screaming about a warrant at the airport security line.
Ben Franklin
@Omnes Omnibus:
Hey, did you know that warrantless search are perfectly legal with consent?
No, I didn’t, your Honor.
Villago Delenda Est
@Ben Franklin:
Jeeze, the pathetic lameness, it just oozes through the tubes and off my monitor onto my keyboard.
Cleanup on my desktop!
jl
Since invective is the topic, if anyone wants to read extremely (and I do mean extremely in an extra rarified way) polite, effective, and informative invective, they should read Dean Baker’s Beat the Press Blog.
Beat the Press
Dean Baker
http://www.cepr.net/index.php/beat-the-press
It has been excellent lately. I read it before Krugman every morning now (gasp!)
flukebucket
@Ben Franklin:
I laughed like hell and I don’t care who knows it.
mds
@aimai:
Well, I suspect the Pauls do. Probably with “tyrannical” added somewhere.
Wapiti
@mike with a mic:
About 30 years ago we were driving through Lake Forest Park, north of Seattle, and passed the Dick’s Drive-In there. My buddy’s girlfriend looked and said, “I love Dick’s”. There was a few moments of silence as we all processed that. Then we laughed all the way to Kenmore.
JPL
@Cacti: Someone should ask younger Paul how he feels about building owners being arrested in Bangladesh but not here.
ricky
@Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again):
You are right Andy. Guess I should have used the real
Southie, added Roxbury instead, and dated it 1975.
Funny how people react to bigotry when it’s invoked by someone with who they agree.
FlyingToaster
For today’s house trolls:
I live in Watertown, well outside of the area cordoned off. I was not in town, but my husband was, and when he got the 2:30 and 3:00 am robocalls about the bombing, he e-mailed work telling them he was working from home for the day. He got an e-mail back from IT at 6:00 am telling him that he didn’t need to work unless he was bored; the Newton office was locking down along with the Riverside T next door.
NOBODY got a “warrantless search”; the only people searched more than once were the ones whose basement doors wouldn’t lock or who had backyard sheds without locks. The SWAT teams (in from Boston and the Staties, Watertown is too small for one) knocked, ascertained that nobody was being held hostage and that the residence could be secured — or not — and then left. Locked residences were left be, since it’s school vacation week and 1/3 of the people were in Florida or other warmer climes.
Some asshat kid with bombs was in our town. Staying in, or at least close to home meant that he wouldn’t have anywhere to hide, and no one to take hostage. We didn’t know if he was alone, wounded, armed, wearing a suicide vest, or likely to kill anyone he met. We got lucky; he was wounded and went to ground unarmed and close enough to the cordon that when people started poking their heads out, he was found almost immediately. But if he’d gone south instead of west, we might not have found him at all, or at best found his corpse.
Every last one of you trolls can go die in a fire.
Mnemosyne
@Bob In Portland:
And the uncle said he hadn’t had any contact with his nephews in at least 5 years.
But keep fucking that chicken.
Kay
@Belafon (formerly anonevent):
Everytime the tornado siren goes off and the radio says “seek shelter immediately” I think “are we under martial law AGAIN?”
The streets empty, it’s eerily quiet, because the constitution just died.
JWL
Who can doubt that Texas cops would have handled the situation oh so much more adroitly?
TAPX486
@Hoodie: If the authorities had not requested the ‘lockdown’ and several bombs had gone off on the mass transit system killing dozens then Ron Paul would be screaming that the liberal governor and Obama didn’t protect the people of Boston.
I hope that lessons are learned and in a future terrorist incident (and there will be one even if the Sarah Palin/Rand Paul ticket is elected in 2016) a similar lockdown will cover a lot less territory and affect fewer people.
The examples of the stiff upper lip Brits might be a good place to start
Ruckus
@mike with a mic:
Agreed. Although I learned to swear like a sailor long before I enlisted. Working at physical jobs that are/were traditionally male will do that.
Ben Franklin
@Mnemosyne:
And the uncle said he hadn’t had any contact with his nephews in at least 5 years.
And Fuller says he retired in 1987.
ranchandsyrup
@Wapiti: @mike with a mic: Dick’s is the place were the cool hang out.
The swass like to play and the rich flaunt clout.
TG Chicago
The guy who filmed the video actually made the Infowars guy seem reasonable by comparison. Great job!
I have no clue why anybody was impressed by the filmer’s incoherent spewage. He could have actually done a good job of making the Infowars guy look like an idiot (which I would applaud, because he is most certainly an idiot), but he failed miserably.
And while Ron Paul went overboard (nobody was in a “forced lockdown”), I’m not sure how you can look at this photo and not say that he is completely off the mark:
http://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn1/p480x480/923495_10200611106256641_1972215990_n.jpg
Terrorists want to sow terror. That reaction sowed terror. This is a legitimate criticism. Especially since the lockdown didn’t even work!
MattMinus
@FlyingToaster:
Yeah he wouldn’t have anywhere to hide, except for maybe in a boat in a backyard or something.
And wouldn’t cops coming into your home to ascertain that you were not being held hostage amount to a warrantless search?
Only upper class white people could be so foolish to think that refusing the police entry wouldn’t be used as probable cause to treat you like a terrorist or that disregarding their “suggestion” that you stay in doors wouldn’t have gotten you hassled/arrested.
Just because someone has a response other than bed wetting terror to the marathon attack doesn’t make them a troll.
Maus
Like the Westboro Baptists, the Infowars crowd loves negative attention. Zings do no good when it just gives them hateboners.
Haydnseek
@Davis X. Machina: I’m not familiar with Humberto. What position did he play?
Ruckus
@Villago Delenda Est:
That’s what is so good about military swearing, superb contempt. It’s that extra bit that moves it into the excellent category in the use of language.
My Truth Hurts
I do, regretfully, tend to somewhat agree that the response was a bit un-proportional. However, for one they got the bad guys so no one of real importance or power is going to complain, and for two after the paranoia and bs that has occurred over the last 12 years what else would anyone expect but an un-propotional response?
From another angle, I know a lot of folks who complied with the police in Boston and Cambridge and Watertown and they all saw it as simply co-operating with them and helping them get the bad guys. How could I disagree with them? That is how they saw it go down. So when outsiders looking in have a different view of those who lived through it I’ll defer to the latter and consider the matter closed.
JAsInJenn
@mike with a mic: Interestingly, my ex’s dad was in the Navy and his uncle was a Marine–not sure if that’s where it came from, but the ex could swear more creatively than anyone else.
MikeJ
@gbear:
And all night long on the radio all the cops thought he had an assault rifle. Cops were told over and over again to use real cover, not just concealment. Hiding behind a car won’t do any good if they fire an M-16 at you.
So I have no problem at all with the cops having armor. I would prefer it if the streets weren’t filled with assault rifles, but they are. If you ask a cop to arrest somebody you think has an assault rifle, it seems a bit small to deny them armor.
Haydnseek
@Redshirt: They we’re going to go with white, but the Imperial Storm Trooper look is so last year………
MikeJ
@My Truth Hurts:
How many people have to have their legs blown off before you consider what they did porportional?
Marc
Y’know, if the cops knock on my door and ask if I’m Ok, I don’t have a problem with saying “yep.” Given that they’re going door to door looking for someone dangerous, rather than being on a fishing expedition for contraband or the like.
For example, some years ago a neightbor got in serious trouble with the law (gun-running), and I had a FBI agent knock on my door to ask if I’d seen him recently, warn me that he was dangerous, and ask me to call a special number if I saw him.
I guess that I should have screamed “I know my rights, jack-booted thug!” Yet, oddly enough, that wasn’t what crossed my mind. More like “good to know”, and “damn, I always thought there was something wrong with that guy”…
FlyingToaster
@MattMinus: The cops only came in WITH CONSENT.
There were several old ladies who didn’t unchain their doors; the cops didn’t bust in since it was fucking obvious that they hadn’t opened their doors to any teenagers with bombs.
It’s not “bed wetting terror”. It’s common sense when you have idiots with weapons and explosives running around, to not be out there and a target.
North of Mount Auburn and west of Watertown Square people were out in their yards, walking up to Dunkin on Main or talking to their neighbors. Even inside the cordon (the Charles River to Mt. Auburn, east to the Cambridge Line, later contracted east to Walnut and then School), people who needed to move called WatertownPD, let them know that they’d be getting out, and waited till the cops on their block gave them the go-ahead that there were no bombers there.
Perhaps you think it’s manly to go wandering around with a bomber in your neighborhood. Please, be my fucking guest; you go be a target and I and mine will survive to call you a moron.
LanceThruster
I think what was chilling is the default position that the power of the state had pretty much no restrictions based on that a suspect *might* be in your house as opposed to likely in your house. The government’s reach gets more intrustive any time they can say that their actions are justified by fear (whose and why will constantly shift). Worse things will happen, and responses will be more all-encompassing.
LABiker
Bill Maher said pretty much the same thing as Paul on Real Time last Friday. I am glad they got the two douche bags, but the event was not without some paramilitary overtones. Think of how Jim Inhofe must have felt seeing the government use up so many bullets. What’s left for the civilians?
Joe Buck
I have an issue with it. The city-wide lockdown was excessive and didn’t work; the suspect was not caught until the lockdown was ended and a citizen spotted the guy hiding in his boat.
We don’t close down an American city every time a killer kills three or four people. To do so gives too much power to the bad guys and costs hundreds of millions.
JWL
@Marc: Twenty-some years ago, a guy who looked like a 1920’s cartoon caricature of a bomb throwing anarchist was busted two blocks from my place (in the inner Sunset in San Francisco) for- you guessed it- building bombs. He drove a van plastered with right wing bumper stickers, and I always figured he was into some type of weird shit.
And I was right!
grape_crush
Ok, that was rather good.
Mumblemouth looked ready to throw down after the speaker told him to ‘drink a dick’.
Patrick
@FlyingToaster:
Well said!
Patrick
@mds:
Don’t forget “SOCIALISM”…
Ruckus
@Joe Buck:
Except that there was no city wide lockdown. As the people who live there have stated time and time again.
We shouldn’t live in fear but being free and living in a larger society has responsibilities, both to yourself and to the other members of the society. It ain’t all about you. One of those IS helping the police catch a murdering, bomb setting/throwing criminal on the run. If staying in your house at their request, not demand, is too much for you, feel free to run around and get in the way.
Comrade Dread
Because cops are human beings, and they were dealing with a bomber, armed carjacker, murder, and suspected cop killer to boot.
You approach a likely armed suspect holed up somewhere, you bring guns. One guy gets nervous, maybe pulls the trigger thinking he saw something, other cops hear the gunfire and assume shit is going down.
These aren’t fearless stormtroopers marching grimly towards danger. They’re people, some (or most of whom) have never been in a firefight.
LABiker
Also too, the best way to make the Infowars guy look stupid is to let him talk.
Ben Franklin
. They’re people, some (or most of whom) have never been in a firefight.
So much for the Thin Blue Line.
Omnes Omnibus
@Ben Franklin:
Given that no one was advancing such a premise, okay.
ETA: Fort Apache: The Bronx is at least as inapt.
Maude
@FlyingToaster:
The “kid” could have been ready to kill a lot more people. No one knew if he was alone and if he had bombs and or guns.
Protecting the community by asking that they stay indoors until the danger is over is what the police do.
Obliterati
Police investigation with a billion dollars worth of military hardware?
Whether or not Boston was a good idea, let’s not pretend it was just some routine police work.
mike with a mic
@Ruckus:
Oh I’m aware it’s not unique to the military, get any group of men around without female supervision doing manual labor and it will start up. It’s just that different groups have different cultures about it, and it’s been my experience that the military tends to treat offending people and swearing as an art form. One of the most oddball statements I ever heard…
“limp dick faggot snowflake here needs to take his sore ass back to Alabama where the only split tail around for miles is his banged out sister the local blacks run a train on so he spends his nights sticking it to his dogs shit cutter”
Spewed by our surly Master Chief at one of the E-3’s who committed the cardinal offense of not fucking a hooker some of the E-5s chipped in to get for him. It’s just so over the top offensive on so many different levels, and always slung with a seething contempt and malice you just sort of sit there.
Another, less of the charts offensive but more witty Master Chief one was lobbed at a female 0-3 who decided to put us through command sensitivity training, “why hasn’t a house fallen on you yet”.
And multiple late nights with nothing to do but try to come up with more over the top insults to hurl at each other. Just sitting around trying to top the prior guy for the most offensive thing you could come up with.
It’s one of the reasons I was shocked when they fired McChrystal for his staff talking shit about the administration. Talking shit about your superiors and bitching is a time honored military tradition. Of course you aren’t supposed to “talk shop” around civilians, and never around the press. You’re just supposed to pretend you aren’t a bunch of backass Neanderthals, but I don’t see how anybody would be surprised that a bunch of special ops guys of all people were rampantly talking shit about the brass and civilian leadership when they thought they were off the record.
It’s always cracked me up when conservatives hold up the military as this paragon of morality, pressed dress uniforms, officer and a gentleman and yadda yadda. Maybe in public, but I hung around enough salty sea bass types to realize the Navy is full of crazies.
scav
For a scarey totalitarian lockdown, sure are a lot of people standing about, filming invective for lack of anything else.
Mustang Bobby
I sincerely admire this guy (the speaker, not the fencepost from Infowars). I especially relish the way he accused him of indecent conduct with certain barnyard creatures.
Joel
Love the video. Wish the guy had more accent.
scav
And I’m OT sorry, this is the best title (ChiTrib, no need for link): Source: Bears not interested in pursuing Tebow
So much for the Circus Maximus martyrdom . . .
gbear
@Kay: When the tornado warnings go off in MN, we all run outside to look for it. We do love our weather here.
Ben Franklin
@Omnes Omnibus:
Given the ineptness of our recent stateside terrorists,(shoe-underwear bombers et al)
we should thank the jihadiists for sending the best of their best to follow on 9/11.
We should also be grateful our guardians have risen to that challenge. I can only hope they keep recruiting idiots with a death wish. That way we can have an even playing field.
Kay
@gbear:
I don’t go in the basement. I’m afraid of bats. We had neighbors for a while, 2 girls and their mom. Their house was on a slab so they’d bang on the door and I’d send them down the stairs.
I’d yell down “I’m alright! Just wait for the whistle!”
So cute though. The younger girl always brought their cat.
gbear
@scav: That statement holds true for the gay connotation of ‘bears’ too. who needs the drama.
Emma
@TG Chicago: NO. IT. DIDN’T. People who live in Boston and lived through it are TELLING YOU that it didn’t.
This is like all those Iowans after 9/11 who insisted they knew what to do better than New Yorkers.
JWL
@Comrade Dread: Right. No one will ever know who fired “the shot heard ’round the world” on Lexington Green. Could even be the shooter himself honestly thought he had drawn fire, and had merely snapped into a self defense mode.
gwangung
@Maude: Not only that, it’s just frak kin common sense.
weaselone
As those from Boston noted, there was no city mandated lockdown. It was a request made of the local businesses and residents to stay home and off the streets. They did not arrest you for failure to comply. I can verify this as my wife and I grew tired of being cooped up all day in our home in Roslindale and went to the Legal C Bar in Dedham for dinner. We got back just as they lifted the “order” in Watertown.
Also, Boston is not easily cowed. Most residents probably used it as an excuse to stay home and get reacquainted with Sam Adams.
FlyingToaster
@Maude: That’s what I said.
Were you trying to address troll-boy?
Soonergrunt
@mike with a mic: ” and the SWAT + APCs was a bit nuts”
You’ve never had IEDs chucked at you, have you?
lojasmo
@TG Chicago:
I looked, and I think it’s completely unreasonable.
The lockdown worked. After it commenced, nobody got killed. Only one injury even occurred, and the suspect was apprehended alive.
Ben Franklin
@Soonergrunt:
This ain’t Iraq, yet.
Ben Franklin
@lojasmo:
The lockdown worked
As a dress rehearsal…indeed it worked.
Ben Franklin
@FlyingToaster:
Yes, troll-boy, because he fails to haul the water you deem drinkable.
Mike Lamb
@Ben Franklin: So what reaction from the Boston populace would have led you to cease being disconcerted?
Ben Franklin
@Mike Lamb:
A little less genuflecting.
Omnes Omnibus
@Ben Franklin: Do you get upset when a state of emergency is declared during blizzards and the cops can arrest people who are out on the roads? ‘Cause the government could totally use the situation to take over the government.
Ruckus
@mike with a mic:
Agreed on the military level of crude, lewd, swearing/comebacks. The navy has it’s share that’s for sure. But in the military it’s the delivery and the comeback that are important as well as the actual language.
I think this dude was right in delivering the message the way he did. Why do you need to be civil to complete assholes? They will never be civil to anyone else and the false sense of morality just doesn’t work. It’s time we called out the assholes for who they are.
gbear
@Mike Lamb: Bostonians should have greeted the police presence with more bombs. FREEDOM!
Ben Franklin
@Omnes Omnibus:
As per usual, a dishonest metaphor. You’ll make an excellent jurist.
Imperious Rex !
Publius39
@Ben Franklin: Who said that IEDs can only be used in Iraq? The “I” in this case stands for “Improvised.”
Comrade Dread
@Ben Franklin: Or did it?
The city of Boston could have been led by its own secret cabal into acquiescing to the lockdown for its own potentially nefarious purposes.
Ruckus
@lojasmo:
It may be too late to let facts get in the way.
Omnes Omnibus
@Ben Franklin: Okay, what did you mean by your reference to a dress rehearsal?
Publius39
@Omnes Omnibus:
I see what you did there.
aimai
@Ben Franklin:
No one genuflected. You keep talking about this but nothing you say makes sense. People chose to stay out of the way of the police because we felt it was in our interest, and the interest of the city as a whole, to do so. That’s called being community minded, or respecting professionals at work, or pretty much anything but blind obedience to a dictatorial act. People keep explianing it to you
1) the shelter in place request was a request, not an order
2) the obvious public safety issues were, uh, obvious.
3) people did what made sense for them. I kept my child home from school and I appreciated that the decision was made from the top down because otherwise she would have been penalized for not coming in to BU. Because the MBTA was closed BU had to close but might have chosen not to thus causing problems for non resident students.
4) Mid-day I brought a hot lunch over to an elderly neighbor. I assessed the danger in my area and did not think it was high. I wasn’t arrested and my neighbor appreciated the visit.
We know people–lots of people–from the immeidate area of the manhunt. People uniformly appreciate the way the police handled the search issues.
Soonergrunt
@Ben Franklin: IED = Improvised Explosive Device, NOT Iraqi Explosive Device you stupid bastard.
Omnes Omnibus
@Soonergrunt:
That’s what you say.
Ben Franklin
@Soonergrunt:
Exsqueeze me. Are you going to regale us with your tall tales of biting the military hand you worked for and bit with no teeth?
Mike Lamb
@Ben Franklin: What does that even mean? I really wasn’t expecting a great response, but that is exceptionally poor. You sound like my high school buddies who talked their way into a brief handcuffing because they were d-bags to the cops that busted up our parties. Honestly, there’s a time and a place. When there is a known mass murderer, willing to use bombs running around the city, it’s common sense/appropriate to toe the line around the cops.
lucslawyer
@ben franklin…was going to give you a concern troll rating but the alex jones reference brought it down to just troll….
Ruckus
@Soonergrunt:
That may be the best use of adjectives I’ve read in a while. Short, pithy and true.
Another Halocene Human
@Big R: Too right.
Soonergrunt
@Ben Franklin: {I’m going to regret this, I’m sure}
What the fuck does that even mean?
Ruckus
@Mike Lamb:
See there you go, expecting common sense from a troll.
Larv
@Bob In Portland:
Did you used to post as Bob in Pacifica, by any chance?
Lavocat
Also, Ron Paul is absolutely correct.
The outrageously over-the-top response by the state was faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaar worse than the crime.
But, hey, so long as we’re all safe, right?
Who the fuck cares about freedom and things like the Bill of Rights.
When did America become Land of the Secure, Home of the Scared?
Oh, yeah, my bad: 9/11, 9/11, & 9/11.
gnomedad
I remember when “support your local police” was a conservative thing, but that meant beating up black people.
Also, Ron Paul, when a tornado siren goes off and sheeple are cowering in their basements, please go outside and watch out for tyranny.
Omnes Omnibus
@Soonergrunt: I am guessing that it means it is long past 4:20 where BF lives, if you know what I mean.*
*No offense intended to stoners who can handle their weed.
Soonergrunt
@Ruckus: I’ve always preferred “understated elegance” like clean lines, fine craftsmanship over bling, and so on.
Publius39
@Ben Franklin:
Wow, that was a non-sequitor and an asshole move right there.
Soonergrunt
@Lavocat: And where do you live, again?
Ben Franklin
@Soonergrunt: @Soonergrunt: @Omnes Omnibus:
You’ve never had IEDs chucked at you, have you?
Don’t try your usual games with the thread winding down, assholes aplenty.
Sooner was in the first war. I made a reference to that ( it was in Iraq, wasn’t it)
Of course y’all are on what you think is a bloodscent, like a pack of coyotes bringing their appetite for a kill.
You won’t eat tonight, unless it’s the corn in my shit.
Omnes Omnibus
@Lavocat:
Where in this was there a violation of someone’s rights?
MCA1
@Higgs Boson’s Mate: No doubt. And it’s a cycle, too – as mentioned, the arming of the citizenry leads to a militaristic response for the authorities, but also worth noting is that that drives further arming of the citizenry, especially the paranoid part of it. It’s almost a chicken and egg thing. They feed off each other.
The end result is a lack of ability for anyone, even those of us who aren’t packing heat in public and arming ourselves to the teeth at home, to have a single interaction with someone supposedly there to “protect” and “serve” us without feeling intimidated or that we’re being perceived as a lethal threat, because they’re all so hypersensitive to possible violence and acutely aware of their own body armor and weaponry.
Publius39
@Lavocat: I find it hilarious that despite all of the comments and stories from BJers that are natives of the Boston area, there is still this overwhelming push to declare the situation in which we just moved one step closer to a totalitarian state.
Ben Franklin
@Publius39:
Wow, that was a non-sequitor and an asshole move right there
Praise from Caesar..
Ruckus
@Soonergrunt:
And you achieved it here.
I doff my hat.
scav
Is the proper bf-approved response to all actions of the police for toddlers to throw themselves bodily and en masse onto the
bayonetsofficers in a non-deferential manner?Another Halocene Human
@FlyingToaster: Huh, good customer service from the Watertown PD–now that’s a service I thought I’d never see in my lifetime.
OK, J/K, they gave my friend her wallet back with all the money inside after she dropped it running from bus to bus in Watertown Square, but it’s hard to forget the time I misdialed my boss (the evil paper company) when I was 11 yrs old and got the Watertown PD front desk instead and the cop screamed at me once we mutually ascertained it was a wrong number.
If I had been the more devious type it would have motivated me to START pranking them, maybe even recording the conversations. Instead, it just made me hate cops.
Publius39
@Ben Franklin: So now you’re going to cover up your fundamental lack of knowledge regarding something that has been extensively covered in the news and on the internet by playing the victim. Bravo.
Omnes Omnibus
@Ben Franklin:
The first recorded war may indeed have been in Mesopotamia, but, even if that is true, I don’t think SG is that old.
Baud
Mandatory police lockdown = More time for Balloon Juice.
Win-win.
Ben Franklin
@Soonergrunt:
What the fuck does that even mean?
Are you going to say you’ve never posted about your run-in with your superiors?
Try honesty. It’s good for the soul to confess.
Origuy
@Bob In Portland:
WAS married. They divorced in 2004.
Another Halocene Human
@Joel: ditto
Ruckus
@Publius39:
I’d probably find it hilarious if it didn’t feed the same cycle of stupidity that MCA1 described in the post above yours. What I do find is that it is just sad. Sad and dangerous because it makes no real sense and has almost exactly the opposite effect from that intended.
Soonergrunt
@Omnes Omnibus:
insert stupid jokes about “when Christ was a Corporal” and “the First Trojan Mechanized Cavalry Regiment.”
Ben Franklin
@Soonergrunt:
Corn for dinner?
mai naem
I don’t have a problem with what happened in Bahston and how the cops acted etc. but at the same time the photos with all those cops in full gear and tanks etc. does make the situation look like some army operation in a developing country. I went to Hong Kong over ten years ago, after the Brits had handed it over and I’ll tell you it was a little disconcerting to land at the airport and see cops?/soldiers? with machine guns. You would even see a few on the streets. This was pre-911 with no political unrest/disturbances going on – it was just the normal way of running things.
YellowJournalism
You’d think Paul would be busy with his so-called school, but I suspect he’s just thrown his name on it, Krusty-style.
gwangung
@Publius39: Mr. Franklin is showing he’s firmly ensconced in the First World.
giantslor
@eric: And of course, all of them are under the control of the JOOOOS.
Omnes Omnibus
@Soonergrunt: Hey, I served with people who claimed to have served in the brown shoe army. Most, I think, were exaggerating slightly.
Another Halocene Human
@Mike Lamb: There’s a show about ME staties right now, North Woods Law, I think, on Animal Planet. No matter what these people were doing on public land, I have never seen cops give out so many tickets and not arrest anybody… until THE KIDS.
After watching this show for 2 hours I’d seen people poaching ducks, smoking weed, firearms violations, small pot grows, etc, etc, and by being polite with the cops get off with warnings or tickets over and over. But then the cops get called down to a group of teenagers hotboxing. They were under 18 and smart-mouthed the cops a lot.
I could see the cops were getting pissed and wondered if they were overreacting. Well, smartie #1 tried to hide evidence but got caught, then smartie #2 tried to school the cops on the 3rd amendment. The cop walks over and says, “Okay. Do you know the meaning of in plain sight?” He then walks him over to the passenger side door where you can see a BRICK of marijuana on the floor.
They arrested the kids and then called their parents.
Soonergrunt
@Ben Franklin: Seriously, you’re on some bad weed or some shit.
Whether I’ve had issues with my seniors before (which I have in fact blogged about) is utterly fucking irrelevant to the facts of the situation in Boston.
Ben Franklin
You assholes from the muddle can mime a progressive tone, but your slavish subservience to the the Law and commensurate Authoritay, gives you away.
You would’ve voted for Nixon in ’68 because he promised to do some things.
And, he paved the way for our current healthcare bennies (HMO’s)
Thank you for participating.
gbear
@Ben Franklin: You’re going to re-emerge in China in about 2 more comments. Please send us a postcard.
Ben Franklin
@Soonergrunt:
Bad weed eh? As your Dr. I recommend you begin drinking heavily for the duration.
It’s the only way to be sure you’re right.
Soonergrunt
@mai naem: German cops were carrying fully automatic weapons in the 1990s when I was stationed there.
The Airport Police at Rhine Main all strolled around through the airport with HK MP-5s, stun grenades, and batons. The regular Staatspolitzei in the cities always had loaded automatic weapons.
Ben Franklin
@gbear:
Thanks for the encouragement. I must be hitting conservative nerves.
Soonergrunt
@Omnes Omnibus: Funny that–since the uniform change, the field boots are all brown suede now. No more shining.
The dress low-quarters are still black leather, but everybody I know buys Cloroframs (patent leather, to rest of you.)
Omnes Omnibus
@Ben Franklin: An unwillingness to assume conspiracy theories on no credible evidence is not a bad thing. You may want to try it sometime.
giantslor
I’m not at all disturbed by overwhelming displays of police power when it’s warranted and necessary. I’m disturbed when it’s not. Let’s take each case separately like rational adults instead of imagining that every goddamn thing is a slippery slope leading to tyranny. That’s the oldest fallacy in the book, and just not the way the world works.
Mo
@JWL: Actually, the “shot heard round the world” was not from the first skirmish on Lexington Green, but the later Battle of Concord at the North Bridge. It wasn’t the shot fired that was so important, but the fact that a British soldier was killed. The battle took place 100 yards from the house of Emerson’s grandfather, who witnessed the firefight. The North Bridge is part of the national park, the Old Manse next door is in private hands but open for tours.
gbear
@Ben Franklin: Actually, you’ve been totally fucking incoherent since your second comment. We’re not all lying to you. Put the bong down. Get help.
Ben Franklin
@Omnes Omnibus:
An unwillingness to assume conspiracy theories on no credible evidence is not a bad thing. You may want to try it sometime.
And you might want to polish off that naivete’ Judge Judy would approve..
Omnes Omnibus
@Soonergrunt:
I had a pair of those, but they don’t breathe and they just cooked my feet. I bought a pair of good leather LQs, added polish, and kept the Clors for emergency back up.
Publius39
@Ben Franklin: That’s rich coming from the person who toes the anti-vaxxer line.
Cassidy
@Kay: for some people, their only purpose in life is that their choices can be an example to others.
Another Halocene Human
@Lavocat: Please tell me that was snark.
I’d take losing a day of work sitting in my house with transit shut down flipping through any news I can get VERSUS HAVING MY FUCKING LIMBS BLOWN OFF.
JWL
@Mo: I stand (actually sit) corrected. Thanks.
Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN)
@mai naem: Actually, police with machine guns in the airport are common almost everywhere outside of North America. I first saw them when I was on a trip to West Germany in 1985.
Ben Franklin
@Publius39:
That’s rich coming from the person who toes the anti-vaxxer line.
Isn’t that one of those non-sequitrs?
scav
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN): Similarly, my first police with machine gun was ’82 or ’83 downtown Paris in a large media store following some bombings.
Publius39
@Ben Franklin: Not at all when you were trying to excoriate Omnes for not paying attention to evidence. That’s the same behavior that anti-vaxxers use. See, its called an analogy that is relevant to this discussion.
Omnes Omnibus
@Ben Franklin: No.
Ben Franklin
@Omnes Omnibus:
Yes, your honor.
Ben Franklin
@Publius39:
Jesus H. You are impaired.
aimai
@Joe Buck:
On the contrary I only wish they closed down an entire city every time someone killed 3 or 4 people–perhaps Chicago wouldn’t be such a god damned murder city for the innocent civilians there if the city put on a full court press and treated those shootings seriously.
Sly
It’s just like Upton Sinclair said: “When fascism comes to the United States, it’ll be wearing Kevlar and delivering milk.“
Ruckus
What is with you guys?
You should see the light and have some BF pie with me. Guarantied to lower the blood pressure ten points in minutes. Or your money back.
Omnes Omnibus
@Ruckus: I don’t pie. And messing with BF can be somewhat entertaining when one is bored.
Ben Franklin
@Omnes Omnibus:
I’m your only challenge. How’s it going?
Soonergrunt
@Omnes Omnibus: Rather like poking a sloth with a stick.
Omnes Omnibus
@Soonergrunt: Well, one does have to be quite bored.
Ben Franklin
@Soonergrunt:
Rather like poking a sloth with a stick.
Better hope you don’t have to become a Hunter/Gatherer. You’d suck at it.
MikeBoyScout
If there were more people in my world, my country, my state, my community like this guy, I would be a much happier individual.
gcwall
@Another Halocene Human:
The douche bag was a square rubber bag with a small hose at one end and a stopper in the top opening. Women mixed vinegar and warm water in the bag and used the small hose to rinse inside their vagina. The aroma of vinegar still brings to mind a vagina unattached to a human being.
I have no idea how douche bag became a phrase to insult an individual for ineffectual behavior.
Woodrowfan
we need better trolls
Rossco
I prefer the term “cock washer”, as in “shut cher clock washer”.
Omnes Omnibus
@Woodrowfan: It’s a recession. These are apparently the best the blog can afford. We have to make the best of it.
bago
I feel stupider and stupider every time I read this ben franklin character.
it’s like a bad play.
Boston: *Boom* *Boom*
Legs go a flying
Police: Send us any and all data that can help. We have Manhunt underway!
Boston: uploaduploadupload
Police: Thanks! we know who they are. Manhunt go! Call in errbody, including the National guard! Bostonian, help us get these guys and get the hell outta the way!
Police: We found ’em, but they got one of us!
Bombers: bugs out and starts throwing more bombs in the chase
Shootout occurs
Bomber: fuck it bro, I’m out. *drives over brother*
Brother: *dies*
Boston: These guys are crazy.
Bomber: *hides*
time passes
Boston: Ok, we gotta get back to business, we got at least one.
Boatie: *finds duder hiding in his boat*
Police: bangbangbangbangbangbangbangbangbangbangbangbangbangbangbangbangbangbangbangbangbangbangbangbangbangbangbangbangbangbangbang!
Bomber acquired.
Publius39
@Ben Franklin: When are you going to call the kettle black?
BethanyAnne
The thing I love was that the police requested that the Dunkin Donuts stay open during the lockdown so they could get some food.
Publius39
@Omnes Omnibus: I thought the poor quality of trolls was related to sequester cuts.
Omnes Omnibus
@Publius39: It is all inter-related. The sequester is just the latest reason we cannot get troll-related stimulus funding.
Soonergrunt
@Ben Franklin: I’ll take that under advisement.
Joel
Trolly trolly trolly, trolly trolly trolly, (under a) rock is my home….
Soonergrunt
@BethanyAnne: That fact does have a certain amount of ironic (or, maybe not so ironic) humor in it.
EthylEster
@NonyNony: so do you think anyone said “no, officer, you can’t come in and search my house”?
gbear
@EthylEster:
Yes. Go back and read @FlyingToaster:
Comrade Jake
The only thing that really bothered me about the way the authorities handled things in Watertown was the massive exchange of gunfire with the wannabe jihadis. 250 rounds fired. That’s insane.
Ruckus
@Omnes Omnibus:
I may have a lower(or is it higher?) boredom level than you. And I have lots of free time.
Actually there are only 4 or 5 people that I have pied. And I do it only for self-preservation. BP meds go only so far, sometimes one has to be a little proactive. On the other hand I do understand picking at that scab. Sometimes it just feels so good.
Ruckus
@Omnes Omnibus:
LOLZZZZZ!!
Ruckus
@Comrade Jake:
Hey at least in Boston they were firing at the suspect.
In LA they fire at people driving a pickup truck. Not the same color or make, not even close to the same suspect description(fired on 2 Hispanic woman and the suspect was a large black man), hit the truck 20-30 times(who knows how many rounds missed but the neighbors said a lot) and only wound one woman.
I give the BPD the better marks here. At least they had acquired the right target.
RobertDSC-PowerMac G5 Dual
Great vid, thanks.
Comrade Jake
@Ruckus:
Right, they were shooting at the right target and only missed a couple hundred times. Trained police officers.
MikeInSewickley
By God… I want this guy to get his own show just to swear at these wingnuts like this.
This is the BEST take down I’ve seen in a long time.
I so wish he would overwrite the FOX taping for one day.
Just great
Doc Stankus
@bago:
Unfortunately, you missed the last step
Police: ok, we’re fascists now. Haha, we tricked you.
Xenos
@Bob In Portland:
The hinky thing probably has to do with family dynamics.
Uncle does well in the states, but does not support sister’s family or cut them into he action. They get more isolated, desperate, start the process of giving up on life in the states. Depressed, mentally ill kids lash out indirectly at the figure who should have helped them, but has pegged them as ‘losers’ for years.
Xenos
@gcwall:
The douche bag was an unnecessary hygiene instrument that was used as a (mostly ineffective) system for post-coital contraception. Cf ‘scumbag’, a used condom containing ‘scum’, thus, semen = filth, impurity. It seems odd to think of semen as being unspeakably filthy, but these terms date to the 1920s, when men were much more fearful of sex, and venereal diseases transmitted by semen were endemic and often incurable.
Ruckus
@Comrade Jake:
I didn’t say they were good shots, just that they had at least acquired the proper target before wasting a couple hundred rounds of ammo.
jonas
@Xenos: That’s where ‘scumbag’ comes from? Huh. Learn something new every day, I guess.
Back on topic, however — I can’t figure why Paul would be upset about any of this save perhaps for the FBI or ATF’s involvement. I thought libertarians didn’t give a shit about oppressive government unless it was at the federal level. State and local authorities can trample your civil rights all they want.
Original Lee
@mai naem: The police at Heathrow Airport carried Uzis in 1981. Your point?
(Correction: or at least something that looked like it could have been an Uzi – I didn’t get close enough for a 100% identification, and it was over 30 years ago.)
Death Panel Truck
@Another Halocene Human: I guess you’ve never heard “cobag.”
TG Chicago
@lojasmo:
Absolutely false. They only found the guy after the lockdown ended and a citizen reported an odd situation.
Wait, that‘s your metric for success? Well, in that case, the Anthrax investigation worked. We still have no clue who did it, but hey! — nobody has been killed since. Promotions for everyone!
TG Chicago
@Emma: Oh, of course nobody was scared during the lockdown. Why would people be scared when the police are telling them it’s not safe to leave their homes?
And then there’s this.
That’s just one story. Do you really think that nobody was afraid when tanks were roaming the streets and people with assault weapons were running around everywhere? When they were saying it wasn’t safe to leave your house? Come on.
Matt McIrvin
@NonyNony: I personally violated the lockdown, more or less by accident. I’d been told incorrectly that “shelter in place” hadn’t been issued in Brookline, and I went and visited a friend there, taking care not to pass through Boston or Cambridge on the way in.
Things were quiet, but there were some people on the roads. Definitely no police rounding anyone up or kicking in doors.
I think there’s a case to be made that issuing the request for so many cities, and shutting down the whole transit system, was excessive. But the idea that terrorism successfully terrorized the sheeple into stopping their lives is, I think, contradicted by the way people behaved between Monday and Thursday night, when everyone knew the bombers were on the loose and the police had no idea who it was. Boston functioned essentially as normal. I was out of town on Monday and came back through South Station on Thursday afternoon, and aside from some unusually messed-up traffic on 93, nothing seemed out of the ordinary before the shooting at MIT.
Matt McIrvin
Also, I’m seeing a lot of references to tanks in the streets, but all I can find is pictures of armored cars. Were there actual tanks, or is this just people calling any armored vehicle a tank?
I know, it’s pedantry; it’s dumb that the Boston cops even have those things.
FlyingToaster
@Matt McIrvin: HumVees and Bradleys; Staties and National Guard have them, Boston doesn’t.
Patricia Kayden
@FlyingToaster: Hear hear!!
I don’t get the angst over the police action in Boston at all. They kept the populace safe while trying to catch the bombing perpetrators. Asking people to stay in their homes while searching for dangerous criminals is no big deal.
Seems like most people who are criticizing the police aren’t from Boston and are just flapping their gums. Looking at you, Rand Paul (a man who thankfully will never be President).
Patricia Kayden
@Bob In Portland: So the FBI/Obama planted the bombs in Boston? What’s your point? What part of Alex Jones’ conspiracy theory is correct?
different-church-lady
One of the very few silver linings of the Boston bombings it that it gave the usual asshats of the left a shining spotlight to prove once, for all, and beyond a doubt that they were asshats.
Some took the opportunity, some were smart enough to decline it. I think it’s obvious which are which in this thread.
different-church-lady
@TG Chicago: Yeah, it’s not like anyone was scared of crazy brothers running around with bombs or anything. It’s all about the cops, don’t you know.
different-church-lady
@bago:
Sadly, I fear that is the exact effect he’s going for.
different-church-lady
@TG Chicago:
I’m a little surprised you’ve decided to prove you’re the dumbest fucker we have around here.
different-church-lady
I’m incredibly amused by this very serious discussion about whether people should find insults to be offensive.
different-church-lady
@MattMinus:
This resident of Watertown kindly invites you to go fuck yourself.
different-church-lady
@Obliterati:
Because, you know, bombs at the Boston Marathon is a routine occurrence.
Hmmm… looks like I’m going to have to buy another case of dope slaps.
Larv
@Patricia Kayden:
I wouldn’t pay too much attention to Bob, he’s a full-time conspiracy theorist. He also believes that HIV was created by the government to kill off the gays, and he seems to be some flavor of 9/11 truther to boot(check out his blog). If you want to know what parts of Alex Jones’ conspiracy theories Bob believes in, my guess is: all of them.
different-church-lady
Wait… did that guy seriously say something about drinking fluoride?
fcc
Bullshit, it was armed riot by cop. The investigation was the excuse.
Fax Paladin
@Ruckus: There is also the idea of covering fire, whose purpose is not to hit the target but to strongly discourage him from sticking his body out far enough to shoot at you…