This particular exchange: Diacanu didn't want Packard to get all the credit for saying this, even though he said it in a much more rational way. So he quickly started this thread.
In the case of those of us who have family members in traditional target cities - e.g., New York - and who know people in law enforcement whose work lives are complicated by events like this, there was a mild uptick in concern. True. And more likely than not involving a "tool" or "tools" whose sole purpose is to fire a projectile or 30+ into a target at high speed. Unlike death by hurricane, in which case certain members of this forum will spend weeks, months, or even years blaming the victims. There is an effort on the part of some of us to separate "natural" disasters from human-caused disasters and to seek ways of changing human behavior to avoid or minimize future disasters of that kind. This in turn inspires others of us to create dramas around "taking away our freedoms," as if that's the only possible outcome. Perhaps if there weren't so many nationwide efforts to cut funding to first responders, evidenced in the extreme by a handful of posters here who believe all taxation is "slavery" (none of whom, BTW, any of us could imagine in the role Carlos Arredondo took upon himself, as if they'd ever step away from the keyboard long enough to even attend a marathon, much less participate in one), there might be less of an impulse on the part of the rest of us to want to tinker with things. Nature abhors a vacuum; so do some of us.
Excellent post. The overall threat analysis from terrorism is still very small compared to lots of other things. It's comparable to being hit by lightning, and we don't go around worrying about that.
Can't rep from my phone, but yes, this is the only proper analysis. This is why I consider the best response (aside from the police investigation and prosecution) to be a bigger and more fantastic marathon next year, without metal detectors or other intrusions by security theater.
No. The marathon was and is safe, public places were and remain safe. I'm at the beach right now, my safety concern is that my kids not drown. Its very unlikely, yet far more likely than harm from a terrorist, home invasion, or mugging.
What, shut down WF? Lanz has the "off", switch for that. Besides, you were the one complaining that it should.
you already tried to dodge your own subject once, doing so again just underlines the fact that you have nothing but a whine flavoured with a bit of pretense but lacking completely in suggestions.
You really should talk to your grandmother privately, and with at least a pretense of respect. At the beach, true. And my kids survived in Manhattan during the FALN bombings without incident. That doesn't mean that in large public venues (Madison Square Garden, for example) I didn't check under the seats and in the vicinity for unclaimed bags or parcels.
I easily put 20 times the effort into the Harry books than went into those stupid pressure cooker bombs.
Vigilance could have prevented this. There is where our government fails. The should be running commercials to tell people what to look for and keep that in the back of people's minds. Instead they do nothing. We don't even have the threat level any more.
How would you do that without raising taxes? How does that fit with Smaller Gubmint? Yeah, let's go back to color-coding. At least you could understand that.
By eliminating the TSA, which is fucking useless. By eliminating DHS, which is fucking useless. Taxes don't need to be raised when they can simply be reallocated.
A threat level? You mean that fucking confusing, pointless color chart they had posted at the entrance to my local military base? That was the very definition of "tits on a pipe-wrench" uselessness.
The hell. What fucking good would color coding have done? You think the Gubmint has psychics on hand that can know when a random loonie is going to whip up a pot of death?? Who doesn't know random, unattended bags are suspicious? I doubt it was there long before blowing up or it probably would have been noticed by someone. We don't need mind numbing commercials shoved in our face to know it. Doofball.
The thing you forget is that the average person is pretty stupid and even many of the smart ones lack any common sense or situational awareness. You get a crowd, packed together at the finish line of the Boston Marathon. You get yourself packed in there with them. Stand around for awhile before taking off your backpack. Then get a staged phone call and act like you're trying to coordinate meeting up with someone. End said call with "Look, just stay where you are. I'm coming," and walk off. Bomb deployed. By the time anyone notices the backpack and decides to find a cop who decides they need to bring in the bomb squad it is too late.
No, dumbass. You asked how they could be funded without raising taxes. I told you how they could be funded without raising taxes.
