Explosions at the Boston Marathon

[WWWTT]

Here's something different

The half ripped building in the background in the first pick adds something.

WWWTT

[-TSS-]

There were a lot of comments during the week when the identity of the perpetrators was still unknown that hopefully they are white so there would not be increased hate and prejudice. As we know, Americans call white people as Caucasians.

Well, they got their wish. Chechens are just about as Caucasians as you can get.

[Michael Hardner]

You will never see it scaled back, always more and more.

That would seem to indicate less opposition - otherwise why would they proliferate in a democratic country ?

Is the right to not be photographed in public really so highly valued that we would risk not catching terrorists on camera to preserve it ? This is the question we need to ask the public at large.

[Pliny]

I take it you don't subscribe to the idea it takes a village to raise a child?

I just about puke whenever I hear that phrase. I haven't read Hillary Clinton's book but there is something wrong with

that soppy message. I think I heard the idea came out of Africa where the village helps to raise the child. Hillary takes it a bit further and figures that the village must intrude upon the child's life. There is a difference between

helping and intruding upon someone because you believe you are more intelligent, and of superior fabric and others are

your lessers. Even if that were true, you allow people to live their lives, make mistakes, take their lumps and enjoy

the fruits of their labour in their pursuit of happiness. Being a stern lecturer or forcing soppy

do-goodness on people only produces more do-gooders who wonder why their "help" is rejected when they know they are such superior persons.

It takes a village is all very nicey-nicey and well-intended but that doesn't mean you intrude as you see fit and take over making sure kids grow up the way you think they should grow up, having it your way.

It is more authoritarian or becomes so.

I don't know if you heard Melissa Harris-Perry's spot on MSNBC but this is the exact pukey do-goody crap

that Clinton pushes.

http://www.mediaite.com/tv/lean-forward-collectively-melissa-harris-perrys-msnbc-ad-says-all-of-your-children-belong-to-us/

Edited April 20, 2013 by Pliny

[Pliny]

There were a lot of comments during the week when the identity of the perpetrators was still unknown that hopefully they are white so there would not be increased hate and prejudice. As we know, Americans call white people as Caucasians.

Well, they got their wish. Chechens are just about as Caucasians as you can get.

Not just white - white/Christian/Tea party extremists.

Paint it the way you like though.

Edited April 20, 2013 by Pliny

[Michael Hardner]

There is a difference between helping and intruding upon someone because you believe you are more intelligent, and of superior fabric and others are your lessers.

Yes, it's tricky and there is definitely a tension there. We read this on MLW all the time, for example, from those who decry the inferiority of different religions, etc.

It takes a village is all very nicey-nicey and well-intended but that doesn't mean you intrude as you see fit and take over making sure kids grow up the way you think they should grow up, having it your way. It is very authoritarian.

And it actually crosses political boundries. Religious fundamentalists and hardline liberals both enjoy telling you how to live. The thing is, they are sometimes right. There are some things that society can tell you to NOT teach your child, because they have to deal with the aftermath.

You'd do well to leave your personal feelings about Clinton out of it because that may colour your objectivity. I'm offering this as advice because I try to think of issues from both political sides at times when there are similarities, such as here. Instead of Hillary Clinton, imagine the thesis being put forward as Bill O'Reilly or Pat Robertson would frame it: the decline of American values, etc.

[Guest American Woman]

A note about the "it takes a village" mindset here - since there are so many, many more good, altruistic people, the "village" must be doing something right - yet all we ever hear is criticism for the failures; we must be doing something terribly wrong since there are a few bad apples. Seems as if there is never recognition, much less praise, for all that is so very right within our societies. Furthermore, the wrongs of the outside "villages" influencing some of the 'bad apples' are never to blame - again, we are. We are somehow responsible for their shortcomings, too. I honestly try to understand the mindset, but for the life of me, I can't even begin to understand....

[Michael Hardner]

A note about the "it takes a village" mindset here - since there are so many, many more good, altruistic people, the "village" must be doing something right - yet all we ever hear is criticism for the failures; we must be doing something terribly wrong since there are a few bad apples. Seems as if there is never recognition, much less praise, for all that is so very right within our societies. Furthermore, the wrongs of the outside "villages" influencing some of the 'bad apples' are never to blame - again, we are. We are somehow responsible for their shortcomings, too. I honestly try to understand the mindset, but for the life of me, I can't even begin to understand....

I'll leave out discussing what happens when the values of one village comes into conflict with that of another on the other side of the world, as that's not the point of your post and a more complicated question. That may have been what happened here, or it may have been the 'bad apple' effect.

I agree with your post - communities are built on discussing and creating common values, and sharing them especially with our children. When something happens, we do need to reflect on why however the few 'bad apples' as you call them can't always be attributed to faults with the community itself.

[Guest American Woman]

It's a neat scene near the capture site where people are showing their gratitude to the law enforcement folks.

The USA chants are a bit goofy, but I guess people are relieved.

There was nothing "goofy" about it. I think this sums up the feelings nicely:

Moment after nail-biting moment, the events shoved us through a week that felt like an unremitting series of tragedies: Deadly bombs. Poison letters. A town shattered by a colossal explosion. A violent manhunt that paralyzed a major city, emptying streets of people and filling them with heavily armed police and piercing sirens.

Amid the chaos came an emotional Senate gun control vote that inflamed American divisions and evoked memories of the Newtown massacre. And through it all, torrential rain pushed the Mississippi River toward flood levels.

"All in all it's been a tough week," President Barack Obama said Friday night. "But we've seen the character of our country once more."

America was rocked this week, in rare and frightening ways. We are only beginning to make sense of a series of events that moved so fast, so furiously as to almost defy attempts to figure them out. But beneath the pain, as the weekend arrived, horror was counteracted by hope. http://news.yahoo.com/across-america-week-chaos-horror-hope-135036767.html

It has been a rough week, and in that regard, I think it's part of the American mindset/character to rally together with hope and pride. I mean, really, is it any more "goofy" than chanting "CANADA!" after a hockey win?

USA!USA!USA! - That's for bush_cheney2004 as I get the feeling he's suspended....

[Guest American Woman]

I'll leave out discussing what happens when the values of one village comes into conflict with that of another on the other side of the world, as that's not the point of your post and a more complicated question. That may have been what happened here, or it may have been the 'bad apple' effect.

Why can't it be some of each? Perhaps 'bad apples' can't accept such conflict without acting on it.

I agree with your post - communities are built on discussing and creating common values, and sharing them especially with our children. When something happens, we do need to reflect on why however the few 'bad apples' as you call them can't always be attributed to faults with the community itself.

Do you honestly think all people's brains are wired the same? We know better; we know that they aren't. The community can't always fix that. I believe sometimes this is where the phrase "we're only human" is applicable. Edited April 20, 2013 by American Woman

[Michael Hardner]

Why can't it be some of each? Perhaps 'bad apples' can't accept such conflict without acting on it.

I hadn't thought of that - that could be part of it too: understanding how to deal with conflict, and understanding that there acceptable and unacceptable means to do so.

Do you honestly think all people's brains are wired the same? We know better; we know that they aren't. The community can't always fix that. I believe sometimes this is where the phrase "we're only human" is applicable.

"Wired the same" sounds like a physiological characterization, so I can't comment. In any case, I didn't say that and as I said: I do agree with your post. I do think that the villages are similar wherever they are.

[eyeball]

Why can't it be some of each? Perhaps 'bad apples' can't accept such conflict without acting on it.Do you honestly think all people's brains are wired the same? We know better; we know that they aren't. The community can't always fix that. I believe sometimes this is where the phrase "we're only human" is applicable.

It IS some of each and sometimes its a pile of things. Some villages screw up and yes people's brains are wired differently. Not everyone reacts the way you'd like to things such as conflicting moral dissonance, for example not everyone reacts the same when confronted with a Shining Light that spreads democracy and freedom with one hand while it also spreads dictatorship and tyranny with the other.

Do you honestly think all people's brains are wired the same? We know better; we know that they aren't. The community can't always fix that. This is where the phrase "we're only human" is applicable.

No this is where the village realizes it's limitations and that it better tread carefully when it transmits the sorts of conflicting messages that cause people's minds to implode or explode as the case may be.

[silver72]

I wonder if the media are going to start asking the questions, could these two, 19 and 26, do ALONE what they appeared to have done? Where would they get military explosives?? Did they have any military training to pull this off?? IF these two guys can do this, then the West is in big trouble, when ready trained military-group decides to do something bigger. OR, is there something else in play??

[GostHacked]

Well now they are being classified as 'enemy combatants'. Stripping this suspect of all rights. Even if the kid lives as it seems he is in a world of hurt at the moment.

[Guest American Woman]

Well now they are being classified as 'enemy combatants'. Stripping this suspect of all rights. Even if the kid lives as it seems he is in a world of hurt at the moment.

Source, please.

[GostHacked]

Source, please.

My bad, just one loudmouth senator calling for it ... http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/04/20/republican-lawmakers-urge-obama-to-use-combatant-status-for-bombing-suspect/

But it could easily be applied and won't surprise me if that ends up being the case.

[Argus]

"An administration official said Tsarnaev was not read his Miranda rights and could be questioned without them for up to 48 hours under a special legal exception used in cases where public safety is at stake."

http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/04/19/17823265-we-got-him-boston-bombing-suspect-captured-alive?lite

I think it's also an indication that they do not need anything he says as evidence. All that Miranda means is the state can't use what he says against him in any way. I believe there is already a mountain of evidence they can use, so they don't care if they can or can't use what he says as evidence.

[Argus]

There's nothing odd about it and I only blame the west when evil blows back in it's face.

By what strange interpretation of facts are you suggesting that is the case here?

[jbg]

Why? As the subject of an intense study into radicalization I would think he'll be kept in a hospital like setting, although I think his capture will probably reveal more about what's wrong with our culture and society than him.

We're responsible to make our culture conform to every discontented, non-assimilated immigrant?

Interesting and impractical idea.

[Argus]

Because his older brother just returned form the place……….Do you understand the relationship between Russia and Chechnya?

You are making no sense whatsoever. The older brother is dead. The younger one can be prosecuted and executed, if the US desires, right in the US. They have absolutely no reason to want to send him to Russia, and nothing to gain from it.

[Argus]

Politically their act made absolutely no sense. It is important for the Chechens to maintain the impression that Russia is a cruel oppressor and all the Chechens want is an independent country of their own.

This act was not on behalf of Chechnia. It was on behalf of Islam.

Islamists consider themselves Muslims first, and then way, way, way way down the ladder, comes whatever country they live in.

[Argus]

The Chechens gave up the moral high ground with Beslan......

Not so much, really. Perhaps the individuals responsible for Beslan did, but no one can possibly give up the moral high ground to a murderous slug like Vladimir Putin. He called far, far more children than any of the rebels will ever manage.

[Guest American Woman]

I think it's also an indication that they do not need anything he says as evidence. All that Miranda means is the state can't use what he says against him in any way. I believe there is already a mountain of evidence they can use, so they don't care if they can or can't use what he says as evidence.

I think they can use what he says as evidence; when the safety of the public is involved, they don't have to read the suspect his rights for 48 hours. After 48 hours, unless he's declared an "enemy combatant," he must be read his rights.

Well now they are being classified as 'enemy combatants'. Stripping this suspect of all rights. Even if the kid lives as it seems he is in a world of hurt at the moment.

IF he is declared an enemy combatant, it will be because that's what the evidence points him out to be. As for his being "in a world of hurt at the moment," he has no one to blame but himself. Can't say the same for the many other people who are "in a world of hurt at the moment" - or worse.

[jbg]

Well now they are being classified as 'enemy combatants'. Stripping this suspect of all rights. Even if the kid lives as it seems he is in a world of hurt at the moment.

I feel very badly that he lives in a world of hurt. His victims, who wanted to run or watch a marathon, don't?

[Peter F]

Nothing says a US military trial after a trip to Russia.....

Nope. No military trial unless it can be shown that he was a member of alqueda or the taliban. Without such evidence there is no 'combatant' status and no Military trial and no gitmo and no shipping off to Russia. The rule of law applies to Americans committing crimes on American soil.