Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

The worst democrat is better than the best republican.

DeSantis transforms Florida into 1930s Germany with gators and theme parks.

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity

fuckem (in honor of the late great efgoldman)

We are aware of all internet traditions.

Something needs to be done about our bogus SCOTUS.

A democracy can’t function when people can’t distinguish facts from lies.

They’re not red states to be hated; they are voter suppression states to be fixed.

Bark louder, little dog.

Good lord, these people are nuts.

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

T R E 4 5 O N

We’ll be taking my thoughts and prayers to the ballot box.

Let there be snark.

Republicans seem to think life begins at the candlelight dinner the night before.

You can’t love your country only when you win.

It may be funny to you motherfucker, but it’s not funny to me.

I wonder if trump will be tried as an adult.

Why is it so hard for them to condemn hate?

Historically it was a little unusual for the president to be an incoherent babbling moron.

American History and Black History Cannot Be Separated

JFC, are there no editors left at that goddamn rag?

They love authoritarianism, but only when they get to be the authoritarians.

Motto for the House: Flip 5 and lose none.

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Reader Interactions

234Comments

  1. 1.

    PIGL

    My contribution to the ongoing discussion on gunbuggery:

    The relationship between American Gun-fondlers and the US Constitution is the same as that between Homophobic Talibangelicals and The Book of Leviticus. They both seek scriptural authority for a pyscho-sexual disorder.

  3. 3.

    LarryB

    Yeah, the Elvis impersonator ricin letter guy must be steaming in his holding cell. What’s a mad assassin gotta do to win the news cycle these days?

  5. 5.

    Spankyslappybottom

    It’s not a REAL terrorist attack until Andrew Sullivan calls us a fifth column.

    I suspect he’s already jizzing on the shirtless photo of the sexy boxer brother, but younger brother Jahar is sensitive with brooding eyes.

  6. 6.

    Suffern ACE

    It really is. I do have empathy for the folks in Boston region. Hopefully there is some cake boss marathon on the TV because I remember what it was like to be trapped inside like that. Hopefully they can turn off the news.

  7. 7.

    pete

    When I was 17, many long years ago, before it was easy to make an international phone call, let alone email and web access, I went on vacation for almost a month in Greece. I missed everything at home (which was then in Britain), including the release of Blonde on Blonde and Revolver. (Yeah, I’m 64.) Within a day or two I had bought those and was up to speed. Otherwise, I had missed nothing. This seems like a good day for missing stuff. If it matters, I’ll catch up soon enough.

  8. 8.

    dslak

    The folks at The Onion have been keeping themselves (and those trapped at home in Boston) entertained.

  9. 9.

    Gin & Tonic

    Well, Serbia and Kosovo are a step closer to normalizing relations, thanks to the EU.

  13. 13.

    Loneoak

    The story about Carlos Arredondo is the most remarkable narrative out of Boston. A few years back, his son, a Marine, died in Iraq. He tried to kill himself by burning himself alive in his truck, and the Marines pulled him out and saved his life. Overcome by grief, his other son took his life. As Arredondo detailed in a heartbreaking interview on Here and Now yesterday, he had to choose to keep living to fulfill an unknown purpose.

    Lo and behold, he was at the Marathon to cheer on the Marines running in Tough Ruck 2013, and he saved the life of Jeff Bauman by holding shut a spurting artery on Bauman’s amputated leg. Arredondo is that now-iconic guy in a cowboy hat rushing down the street next to a victim in a wheelchair. And now Bauman is revealed as a key eyewitness in identifying the bombers.

    It’s like a straight shot of the distilled essence of everything that is terrible and awesome about being human.

  14. 14.

    Punchy

    Comment deadthreaded, so I’ll ask again — does anyone know what the Boston PD SOP is for tomorrow, or perhaps Sunday? How can they justify a Freakout Friday unless they also advocate for Stay-home Saturday, and perhaps even Shut-in Sunday?

    Seems like they’ve set a precedent that nobody buys groceries or grabs their meds until Whitey Hat is nabbed, but couldn’t this take awhile?

  15. 15.

    WaterGIrl

    @raven: I’ve been mostly away from BJ for the past two months, but I see that your bride must have had surgery for her pain and there are high hopes for improvement. Yay!

    Not yay for crazy cocker spaniels not understanding about surgery.

  17. 17.

    gogol's wife

    Before I found out what was happening in Boston, the first thing I saw this morning was David Brooks’s column:

    “Liberals are furious, but the gun issue will not significantly damage the Republican Party. Sure, it looks bad to oppose background checks, which have overwhelming popular support. Sure, the Republican position will further taint the party’s image in places like the suburbs of Philadelphia and Northern Virginia. Sure, the party looks extreme when it can’t accept a bill sponsored by the conservative Senator Joe Manchin and the very conservative Senator Pat Toomey.
    But, let’s face it, the gun issue has its own unique dynamic, which is that the people who oppose gun limits vote on this issue while the people who support them do not.
    Moreover, Democrats never made a compelling case that the bill would have been effective, that it would have directly prevented future Sandy Hooks or lowered the murder rate nationwide. Even many of the bill’s supporters were lukewarm about its contents.”

    Why is the New York Times paying this man a salary?

  18. 18.

    NotMax

    @Suffern ACE

    Well, it remains a voluntary lockdown. Folks will start trickling out. And families may find a reason to drag that dusty box of Monopoly from the top shelf of the closet or the attic.

  20. 20.

    jayboat

    @raven:

    When I was 17 I went to Korea but we managed to get a copy of Sgt Pepper and Disraeli gears.

    Groovy. Power to the people, man.

    Those two alone could get you through a month or so.

  21. 21.

    Suffern ACE

    @Morzer: It’s a show set in a bakery where they decorate disgusting and abhorrent cakes made of cockroaches and used kleenex. Especially targeted to people on strict, calorie limited diets, it aims at making those people feel good about their choices.

  22. 22.

    eemom

    God, I love The Onion:

    “BREAKING: No News Breaking
    BREAKING: Still Nothing
    BREAKING: Has The Word ‘Breaking’ Lost All Its Meaning?”

  23. 23.

    ? Martin

    @Punchy:

    How can they justify a Freakout Friday unless they also advocate for Stay-home Saturday, and perhaps even Shut-in Sunday?

    Sounds like they’re rushing through the canvas to be done today, and my guess is they’ll set up hard checkpoints all around the area. They simply can’t keep the shelter in place going past today.

  24. 24.

    The Dangerman

    @LarryB:

    …the Elvis impersonator ricin letter guy must be steaming in his holding cell.

    Not that I’m interested in trying, but is ricin that easy to make that a really bad Elvis/Prince impersonator can do it? That’s scarier than any (apparent) lone wolf bomber to me.

  25. 25.

    Geoduck

    @Morzer:

    Dare I ask what a cake boss marathon might be?

    “Cake Boss” is the name of a reality television program which airs on the TLC cable network, depicting the production of various cakes. Sometimes a television network will air several episodes of such a program in a row, the collective whole being called a “marathon”. Of course, people in Boston might not appreciate the reference right now.

  26. 26.

    pete

    @raven: Get offa my lawn, kid. Anyway, by the time Disraeli Gears was out, it was almost time for Magical Mystery Tour.

  27. 27.

    Jeremy

    I love how a number of white folks are acting like people from the former Soviet Block and Russia are not white people. They are white people and no amount of lies will change that fact. From the “dark skinned” reporting coming from the media, TMZ trying to blame Hip hop music for these suspects being violent, and the media calling these suspects “young men” when they found out they were white but before they were calling them terrorists when they thought they were a minority. This entire episode has showed how racist this country can be.

  28. 28.

    ? Martin

    @The Dangerman:

    but is ricin that easy to make

    Yes. But ricin isn’t easy to weaponize en mass. There’s almost no way to impact multiple people. It’s an assassination tool at most. In that vein, anyone can go to their local gun show and much more easily get a far more effective assassination tool.

  29. 29.

    Alex S.

    @the Conster:

    Funny… and sad… and true…

    Gun control and immigration reform dead, terror by mail, terror by bombs, terrorist on the run with shootout and everything, also that Reinhard-Rogoff story that really makes me wonder what my degree in economics is worth at all.

  30. 30.

    shortstop

    @The Dangerman: I’ve been reading that it’s not that easy. His ex, who freely admits he’s deeply mentally ill, says he was too dumb and non-functional to have pulled it off. Of course, Ben Franklin doesn’t care a whit for this false flag operation and this poor white man getting railroaded.

  31. 31.

    Punchy

    60 likely-bigots still unaccounted for (and likely pushing up daisies) in Texas explosion and it barely registers a 8-size font link on most websites due to some punk on the Boston lam.

    East Coast bias, how the fuck does it manifest?

  35. 35.

    shortstop

    @? Martin: Most of my acquaintance with it has been in Agatha Christie novels, where people are always getting mowed down by ricin and digitalis.

  36. 36.

    shortstop

    @Punchy: We were assured that we don’t have to be afraid of our fatherly corporate overlords, only of foreigners.

  38. 38.

    raven

    Tuned in just in time for the “chickie run” Rebel. Natalie sure looks good holding that hamburger.

    Damn, Biff got his motorcycle jacket caught on the door handle and went over the cliff. Now those were the days when teenage boys knew how to act

  41. 41.

    The Snarxist Formerly Known as Kryptik

    Greg Sargent and Kevin Drum both take on generally the same idea from different angles. Basically, senators, especially OUR senators, it seems, just find it too damn hard to waste political capital. God knows they have to save it. Can’t go blowing it on guns, immigration, and gay marriage all at once. Gotta sacrifice one issue to support the other, it’s just too much at once, say they!

    Of course, while I want to slap Kevin upside the head sometimes for his flirtations with chronic centrism, he basically makes the point that hurts me most: winning gives you momentum, losing strips it. Having beaten down gun control, and with the bolstering of the latest Boston developments, GOP is basically set to kill immigration reform on the basis of ‘scary immigrants want to bomb you, look what LEGAL immigrants did!! Think about what ILLEEEEEGAALS! might do if they get full reign!!’ And they very well might ride that shit to staking another bill that we supposedly had senators ‘keeping the powder dry’ on. Just…fuck all, when does it stop feeling like being a Democrat is like saying you’re a Washington Generals fan to a Harlem Globetrotter?

  42. 42.

    aimai

    @shortstop: Ricin? No: arsenic and digitalis were the biggies. Someone was killed with nicotine in a Georgette Heyer mystery. I don’t remember any ricin deaths at all in AC or Ngiao Marsh. Syncope was used, famously, in a Dorothy Sayers as well as a particular form of arsenic in the one in which Peter meets Harriet.

  43. 43.

    Gin & Tonic

    Here’s a good short piece by a young guy of my acquaintance, who went to Northeastern for journalism, interned at the Globe, now lives in Moscow and knows the Chechnya, Dagestan, Ingushetia area well.

  44. 44.

    Trollhattan

    @LarryB:

    Fa-shizzle. It’s like when Mark Sanford had all the damn headlines then BAM–Mikie Jackson kicks and a Sanford can’t get a scrap of front page.

    Oh, the humanity. Or as the curse goes, “May you live in interesting times.”

  45. 45.

    NonyNony

    @Punchy:

    East Coast bias, how the fuck does it manifest?

    Dude if the factory had been blown up by possible scary terrorists, you wouldn’t be able to keep the press off of it regardless of where it occurred.

    But since the explosion appears to be due to incompetence and the death toll due to Texas’s wild west approach to zoning laws, the story is a tragedy, but not a scary tragedy.

    It’s less “East Coast bias” and more “fear sells”. And unless you live in a place that has ridiculous zoning laws that allow you to build houses near potential bombs, there isn’t much about the Texas story to generate fear.

    (That said, without Boston the coverage around the factory explosion would probably still be awful, but in a different way.)

  48. 48.

    cyntax

    I may be late to the party on this but did y’all see that Adolphus Busch IV has resigned his lifetime membership in the NRA?

    “It disturbs me greatly to see this rigid new direction of the NRA,” Busch wrote in the letter—which he provided to a St. Louis TV reporter and is embedded below. “I am simply unable to comprehend how assault weapons and large capacity magazines have a role in your vision.”

  49. 49.

    Jeremy

    @The Snarxist Formerly Known as Kryptik: If the republicans block immigration reform then they have zero chance of winning the white house in 2016. Immigration reform will not save the GOP but it will hurt them if they block the effort again. The democrats would love to pass it but if they don’t it’s a political win because they can paint the GOP as bigots again.

  50. 50.

    gogol's wife

    @Gin & Tonic:

    I just checked Russian google to see if they were saying anything interesting, but they seem to be just repeating U.S. news sources. I’ll read this with interest.

  52. 52.

    Stephen1947

    Ya wanna talk about a slow news day? Imagine being in the city where all this is happening. You can’t go outside, not so much because of gov’t orders as because there’s no place to go. So all you can do is sit and watch the slow trickle of google news updates and whatever’s going on on yr facebook page – The universe keeps revolving more and more slowly until you begin to wish for an earthquake or something like to shake you out of your lassitude.

  53. 53.

    Trollhattan

    @eemom:

    America’s Finest News Source has been on fire (fahr) since Monday. My favorite bit was when the crowd-sourced whether they should “take their clear shot” at a bomber suspect. After the “yes” vote won, they then apologized to the unfortunate innocent Bostonian they’d shot.

    Pretty much summed up public expectations.

  54. 54.

    Nina

    The Texas explosion is unlikely to kill anyone else any time soon, whereas the Boston killer is still on the loose.

    Also, a lot of people who now live elsewhere spent their student days in Boston. I’ve woken up hung over in that very neighborhood more times than I’d care to recall, your honor.

    I don’t think people who live in West, Texas ever go very far from their hometown, nor are folks clamoring to move there.

  56. 56.

    Trollhattan

    @cyntax:

    Saw that, too. Expected wingnut response: “Sad fellow’s brain went soft because of all that beer.”

  58. 58.

    handsmile

    @WaterGIrl:

    GREAT to see your nym here! (That’s one bit of good news today.)

    Hadn’t seen it for some time (and sent out a flare to learn if anyone else had), so had grown somewhat concerned (as one does with on-line only acquaintances).

    I do hope all – or at least most – is well with you. Best wishes!

    ETA: Which reminds me to ask again of others here: anyone seen or know the whereabouts of Brachiator?

  59. 59.

    The Snarxist Formerly Known as Kryptik

    @Jeremy:

    It might cost them the White House, true, but it still might be a wash if it doesn’t cost them more than that, considering they still seem to own all the other goddamn levers in the gov’t, functionally if not nominally.

  60. 60.

    The Dangerman

    @Punchy:

    East Coast bias, how the fuck does it manifest?

    If the Bomber Dude makes it to LA somehow and there’s a car chase, well, ratings gold!

  66. 66.

    MattR

    Do the police have a legal justification for entering and searcing every building within the perimeter they’ve set up? I doubt that anyone is going to refuse them entry and I’d bet that in that case the police would just go ahead and conduct the search anyway and deal with any consequences later. But I am curious what the law/Constitution actually allows.

  72. 72.

    Jeremy

    I’m cracking up at these people claiming that the suspects are not white. Clearly they look white and people from the former Soviet block and Russia are white people. Last time I checked people from that region are not African, Asian, Hispanic, or Arab.

    I guess according to the bigots only non white people commit acts of terror.

  75. 75.

    Higgs Boson's Mate

    Have any of you who live in the locked down areas heard if there’s any provision being made for Meals on wheels, visiting nurses, etc.?

  76. 76.

    ? Martin

    @MattR:

    But I am curious what the law/Constitution actually allows.

    Emergency exception. If the police are actively pursuing a criminal, they can enter and search without a warrant, even on property that isn’t related to the person being pursued.

    I think we’re good here. I don’t think anyone would argue that within the perimeter there wasn’t a pursuit still in progress. Once they leave the perimeter, they probably lose their claim of pursuit, though.

  77. 77.

    Morzer

    @Scout211:

    BREAKING: ‘The Onion’ In Kill Range Of Boston Bomber Suspect
    Do We Take The Shot? Tweet Us Your Votes

    UPDATE: ‘The Onion’ Apologizes For Killing Innocent Boston Man Tom Mahoney
    We Spoke Too Soon

  79. 79.

    ? Martin

    @Jeremy:

    I guess according to the bigots only non white people commit acts of terror.

    Also, imagine their difficulty discriminating if they had to accept that whites could be Muslim. That’s just a drop too far.

  80. 80.

    kindness

    All week has been dull. Nothing but drama on the news, crap on the tube (outside of GOT). I look forward to leaving and being home for the weekend.

    Now is not the time to tell someone they are da bomb.

  81. 81.

    NotMax

    @cyntax

    Strange how Mr. LaPierre hasn’t strapped on his trusty sixthirty-shooters and volunteered to go to Boston to show real ‘Murrika and all those “jack-booted thugs” how it’s done.

    Just sayin’.

  82. 82.

    bemused

    @Svensker:

    At the time, I couldn’t stop looking at that monstrosity of a cake and trying to believe a celebrity chef actually made it. Some chef. I wonder how Anne herself managed not to scream when she saw it.

  84. 84.

    Jeremy

    @The Snarxist Formerly Known as Kryptik: But over time it will continue to hurt them. They will not hold on to the house for long even with gerrymandering, and if another Democrat wins the white house then the courts will move to the left since that person will appoint more liberal judges. Also, the 2016 Senate map looks really good for the Dems and they probably will pick up a lot of seats. You are giving the republicans too much credit because if they continue to this current path the future is not going to look so great for their party.

  85. 85.

    Maude

    I heard that the brothers have been in the US for ten years. So much for the foreigners gone wild theories.
    Haven’t heard anything General Stuck and I am concerned. I was wondering the other day if he died.

  87. 87.

    MattR

    @Maude: @? Martin: Thanks. I figured there had to be an exception for police pursuit. But was kinda curious how far and how long that extended. The perimeter seems like a reasonable cutoff place.

  88. 88.

    aimai

    @Morzer:

    No, I know–Dorothy Sayers uses the maguffin of an empty syringe and has the victims killed by an air embolism which causes syncope. Sorry that that was unclear.

  89. 89.

    lamh35

    Damn! I just got off from work. It’s amazing what things you miss when your in the basement (most labs in hospital are on ground floor or basement). Shit I got a lot to catch up on.

  91. 91.

    JGabriel

    Just got back from lunch in little Italy with a friend. Margherita pizza with pepperoni, Italian meatballs, onion, roasted garlic, and fresh mozzarella. Mmm.

    And three glasses of red wine. I really can’t recommend Aglianico enough. It’s right up there with the Brunellos, the Barolos, and the good Bordeauxs. Bone dry and just the right amount of spicy.

    Mmm.

    So what did you guys do all day?

    (Seriously, though, it was a relief to get away from the news for a little while.)

  92. 92.

    Mr Stagger Lee

    Well I am sure that Nate Bell guy is having the time of his life, is his twitter account still up?

  93. 93.

    Shortstop

    @aimai: Ricin was the instrument of murder in one of the Tommy and Tuppence stories, The House of Lurking Death. She may have used it in other stories; can’t remember now.

    Syncope means fainting — it’s not a poison. Are you thinking of cyanide? Sayers used it once or twice.

  94. 94.

    Ben Franklin

    “Given the events of this week, it’s important for us to understand the gaps and loopholes in our immigration system,” he said. “While we don’t yet know the immigration status of the people who have terrorized the communities in Massachusetts, when we find out, it will help shed light on the weaknesses of our system.”

    “How can individuals evade authorities and plan such attacks on our soil?” he continued. “How can we beef up security checks on people who wish to enter the U.S.? How do we ensure that people who wish to do us harm are not eligible for benefits under the immigration laws, including this new bill before us?”

    Grassley——

    Opportunity knocks.

    Oh, but hey it’s not a conspeeracy..

  95. 95.

    aimai

    I don’t know how to talk about the Texas disaster–if I point out that it is a wholly man made disaster, completely avoidable, I will be considered meanspirited. But it was. If I were to write that in a letter to the editor in Texas I’d be attacked as anti capitalist, or anti amurikan, for acting like regulation of toxic and dangerous industries is as natural to a civilized society as separating the bathroom and the kitchen in a modern house. Its not really a good idea to mix the two.

    I absolutely mourn those people and that loss of life but you can bet your boots that no coverage of the disaster will address this issue. Hell NPR’s show on Money went instantly to this lede “Why are fertilizer plants so well liked? So desirable?” And then they interviewed a desperate Mayor in a decaying city in Illinois who was basically willing to do anything to lure a fertilizer factory there to bring “good union jobs” in. They then interviewed a man on the street who explained that he “thought it was a good idea as long as all rules and regulations and proper procedures were done with the stuff, whatever it was, the amonia.”

    The people on the ground are not fully informed or consulted about the needs of capital to be unregulated and factories to be built in the middle of nursing homes and schools. I empathize with people who are fucked over by their own local governments and who die as a result–there is a reason why the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire is still a big fucking deal. But what do my feelings have to do with the reality of the fact that people like me are considered kill joy cassandras rather than responsible citizens when we criticize these lax policies in advance?

  96. 96.

    ? Martin

    @Ben Franklin:

    How can individuals evade authorities and plan such attacks on our soil?

    Without background checks when buying guns, it appears to be pretty damn easy.

  98. 98.

    aimai

    @Shortstop:

    No, I explained above. I know what syncope is. I was just trying to obscure the method a bit in the Dorothy Sayer’s novel where she uses the empty syringe/embolism as the mode of murder.

    I forgot about tommy and tuppence. They weren’t my favorites!

  99. 99.

    Shortstop

    @aimai: oh, you’re thinking of Mary in Unnatural Death. Loss of consciousness was the least of Miss Dawson’s problems under that technique.

  101. 101.

    PurpleGirl

    @Punchy: I don’t think it’s East Coast bias. I think it’s corporate bias — to talk too much about the plant blowing up means making the company that owns it into bad guys and the corporate media won’t shine that light on any company.

  103. 103.

    JGabriel

    @dslak:

    The folks at The Onion have been keeping themselves (and those trapped at home in Boston) entertained.

    Speaking of which:

    FBI: ‘You Know You’re Desperate When You’re Asking The American People For Help’

    WASHINGTON—Saying that the last thing he ever wanted to do was ask “311 million mouth-breathing morons” for help …

  105. 105.

    Amir Khalid

    @raven:
    A mainstream Sunni Muslim like me would have trouble accepting that Elijah Muhammad’s teachings constitute Islam as we understand it. Elijah’s heirs underscored that point by joining the Sunni mainstream.

  106. 106.

    the Conster

    @Loneoak:

    Also, Robin Young from Here and Now’s nephew is/was a very good friend of Bomber #2 and had him at her house once, just to close that loop.

  108. 108.

    cyntax

    @NotMax:

    Well thank god the bombers were able to get ahold of enough firearms to have extended firefights with half the police in MA. Wouldn’t want any 2nd Amendment infringements.

  110. 110.

    Morzer

    @aimai:

    Air embolisms essentially cause heart attacks. Syncope isn’t fatal in itself, but is a symptom of an underlying problem. ‘Syncope after a heavy meal’ is mentioned in Unnatural Death, but this is basically a shorthand way of saying the victim ate a lot, passed out and a weak heart did the rest, although you are quite right about how the ‘heart attack’ was produced.

  113. 113.

    ? Martin

    @PurpleGirl: Well, it’s the difference between a situation that poses no threat to the public and one that does. Or is bodycount supposed to supersede threat?

  114. 114.

    GregB

    Everyone not an idiot knows that people from the Caucasus region of the world are Negroes, or at the very least Arabs.

  115. 115.

    JPL

    @Maude: A few weeks ago I searched under his name on Balloon Juice and was able to click to his site. I left a note. Since his site hadn’t been updated, I’m concerned also.
    I’ll see if I can find his site again.

  117. 117.

    ? Martin

    @cyntax: Don’t forget buying enough untraceable gunpowder to construct at least 9 bombs. We can thank the NRA for that too.

  118. 118.

    Davis X. Machina

    @aimai:

    But it was. If I were to write that in a letter to the editor in Texas I’d be attacked as anti capitalist, or anti amurikan,…

    The Market would be a piss-poor excuse for a deity if it couldn’t demand, and get, periodic human sacrifices.

  119. 119.

    Ben Franklin

    John King; someone is twittering you.

    http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2013/04/19/us/boston-marathon-manhunt.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

    This was buried at the bottom of the timeline.

    Note: The Massachusetts State Police are backing off an earlier assertion that the two suspects had robbed a 7-Eleven in Cambridge. “The most accurate statement is that we’re investigating whether they were involved in an armed robbery in a 7-Eleven,” said Dave Procopio, a spokesman for the state police. “Initially we came out and confirmed it for you, now I want to go back and double check it,” he said. “I want to qualify that further to say we’re double-checking.”

  120. 120.

    ranchandsyrup

    I have become what I used to mock. The dude sitting in his garage listening to the police scanner and following on twitter. Goes without sayin that it’s Obammie teh Commie’s fault.

  123. 123.

    handsmile

    @JGabriel:

    I think you’ve committed an act of gastronomic terrorism against BJer Morzer (he/she has not been seen since you planted that comment).

    Check out Betty Cracker’s earlier “Open Thread” (start at comment #70) to learn what you’ve done, you bastid!

    (oh, and by the way, just where do you have that glorious lunch?)

    ETA: comment #111 exonerates you after all.

  124. 124.

    Shortstop

    @? Martin: you don’t think that lack of workplace safety is a bigger threat to American life than terrorism? The stats are sobering. No one expects a Texas fertilizer plant to magically start endangering, say, Ohioans, but at the very least this should engender a national conversation about safety policies and regulations.

  125. 125.

    JGabriel

    @handsmile:

    by the way, just where do you have that glorious lunch?

    Rubirosa. 235 Mulberry, between Prince and Spring.

    Edited to Add: Whoa. Sorry if I offended, Morzer.

  129. 129.

    I am not a kook

    @Jeremy: I don’t know why you keep posting this comment multiple times.

    Of course it’s kind of funny that these guys are by definition Caucasians, as in being from the Caucasus region originally.

    Central Asia is an interesting place ethnically. There’s a kind of continuum from “European” looks to “Asian” looks that seems to produce some of the most strikingly beautiful people in my eyes. And by people I kind of mean women (sorry for being shallow).

    Anyway, on the subject: in Russia, Chechens are definitely not “white”. Russian rule in the region has been more like colonialism than anything else, with ethnic tensions. In the US, I guess it would depend on what they checked as their ethnicity in various govt forms.

    You and some other commenters bringing this up in a weird “neener neener, they’re white” manner is really strange to me. Care to elaborate what you mean?

  131. 131.

    ? Martin

    @Shortstop:

    you don’t think that lack of workplace safety is a bigger threat to American life than terrorism?

    Of course I do. But what time frame are we talking about? This year, or today? To the people in and around Boston today, it happens to be terrorism. To everyone else, not knowing what actually premeditated this, it’s reasonable to think that it might be terrorism. But over any period of time, it’s of course workplace safety.

    And I’ll note that when the MIT officer was shot, I turned on the TV. Every single news channel was running tape of the incident in Texas. We’re not ignoring Texas, we’ve shifted to something more urgent. We can return to Texas. Will we? Probably. The news could have been covering the bombing last night but wasn’t – it was all Texas.

    Nobody noticed that Anderson Cooper and everyone else haven’t been covering this from Boston? They had all left Boston to cover Texas. That was the bigger story than the bombing.

  133. 133.

    ? Martin

    @I am not a kook:

    Care to elaborate what you mean?

    We mean that Fox News is doing their level best to load them on the Muslim discrimination bus. Take it up with them. They’re the ones making this about race. Don’t bitch at us for trying to correct them.

  135. 135.

    EconWatcher

    @I am not a kook:

    You are correct that Russians don’t view Chechens as white people. They have a word for men from the Caucusus (“khachiki“). It’s not a complimentary word.

  136. 136.

    aimai

    @? Martin:

    What’s to cover in the Texas story, really? Isn’t this dog bites man? We know what happened and we know why and we know that the corporation will never be held accountable for these deaths in Texas. To me its got no more interest than an avalanche. There’s no mystery in it.

  137. 137.

    JCT

    @4tehlulz: Presumably — via that sacrosanct gun show loophole. Hoping this comes out when the wingnuts start screaming about evil terrorist mooslims. But I won’t hold my breath. Because we shouldn’t pass laws when we are “emotional”.

    And the taggant story is a horror. Really, why doesn’t anyone bring this crap up whenever the NRA is mentioned?

  138. 138.

    ? Martin

    @Shortstop: I should add…

    but at the very least this should engender a national conversation about safety policies and regulations.

    Like the 90% support for background checks that the Senate blocked? How’s that national conversation working out for us?

  140. 140.

    SatanicPanic

    @I am not a kook:

    Chechens are definitely not “white”.

    Not now, of course. But when it becomes useful for them to be, then they will be. I think it’s funny that John King said it was a “dark-skinned male” – of course – but regardless of how you define these two, they are not dark-skinned.

  141. 141.

    gogol's wife

    @gene108:

    I know it’s the cynical conventional wisdom to think that people who favor gun control do not vote on that issue AND NEVER WILL, but I think that last part is changing and will continue to change.

    The only reason anyone was “lukewarm” about this bill is that it was watered down to almost nothing in order to get the vote, and we didn’t get the vote. But I agree with Gabrielle Giffords on this one, not David Brooks. This is just the beginning.

  142. 142.

    eemom

    I’m seriously worried about General Stuck. He lives alone, hasn’t been in the best of health and it is way out of character for him to be gone this long.

    John Cole — I wish you would e-mail him if you can.

  143. 143.

    I am not a kook

    @? Martin: I’m not bright enough to go that deep into meta land. “Looks white to me” is pretty weak tea. I speak as member of ethnicity that used to be white enough for Nazis but too mongrelized to (some) Swedes.

  148. 148.

    Trollhattan

    @SatanicPanic:

    I need the live one lined up next to Boehner so I can determine this for myself. Maybe he’d been hitting the tanningoranging bed.

  150. 150.

    Amir Khalid

    @cyntax:
    Certain of the Nation of Islam’s teachings are significantly different from those of mainstream Sunni or Shi’ite Islam. The Wikipedia article lists some of these differences. I’m guessing these differences raised credibility issues with traditional Muslim communities in America and abroad when the Nation of Islam sought to reach out to them — as Malcolm X found out for himself.

  154. 154.

    aimai

    @SatanicPanic: Race is so totally in the eye of the beholder its useless to talk about “white” as though its a real thing–Jews, Armenians, Chechens, Italians have only been considered conditionally white in the context of a particular white/black divide in the US. Tons of academic and legal work reflects this long term struggle to be defined as white and for certain groups it is clearly conditional and can be revoked.

    This has nothing to do with the word “causasian” or “caucasus” or actual skin tone. It has to do with history and culture and politics. You can be a despised and marked out minority by apparent physical/ethnic traits that are not clearly “non white” in our modern, post Nazi, sense of the term.

    My point here is that if its necessary to some groups in this country to see these guys as “non white” for propaganda purposes they will. If its important to them to see them as renegade whites, they will. There isn’t a fine line here dividing someone who “really” looks x from someone who “really” looks y. Its all culturally determined. And in the all encompassing paranoia of the right wing vis a vis the muslim threat it can be just as useful to accuse “white lookalikes” of being sleepers, hiding in plain sight, as in insisting that you can tell the bad guys from the good guys at a glance.

  156. 156.

    Baud

    @Amir Khalid:

    AK, I’m sorry if I missed you telling your story, but I was curious how a guy in Malaysia ended up at this blog ( and with a better grasp of the U.S. than I have).

  158. 158.

    gogol's wife

    @Trollhattan:

    He’s been monitoring the police scanner, and I believe his statement can be translated as, “On the scanner, it sounds as if they’ve apprehended the suspect.”

  159. 159.

    Baud

    @raven:

    7-11 robbery NOT them!

    How many times do we have to go through this before we realize we can’t rely on ANY initial information.

  160. 160.

    ThresherK

    @aimai: I won’t give away the title, but an Ellery Queen from the early ’30s has a nicotine poisoning as the M.O., and I’m trying to figure out when that became popular (in fiction, at least).

  162. 162.

    raven

    @cyntax: You really should read the Autobiography of Malcolm X by Alex Haley (Roots). It’s great account of his life from being a small time thief in Boston, through prison, the Nation of Islam and then his transformation away from that group.

  163. 163.

    ? Martin

    Hmm. Reporters on twitter just suddenly went silent. They’re paying attention to something.

  164. 164.

    ranchandsyrup

    @gogol’s wife: just said “not white hat guy”. One more dude to check out in this building. Sorry all. My bad. Wishful thinking on my part. The play by play stuff is fascinating but I shouldn’t speculate on here.

  166. 166.

    Betty Cracker

    @Punchy:

    60 likely-bigots still unaccounted for (and likely pushing up daisies) in Texas explosion and it barely registers a 8-size font link on most websites due to some punk on the Boston lam.

    Likely bigots? Really? That’s a shitty thing to say.

    There are a lot of asshole bigots in Texas to be sure, but for fuck’s sake…

  167. 167.

    raven

    @Baud: I’d like to hear that as well since Mr Khalid is one of the most even-handed,compassionate and well informed people here day-in-and-day-out.

    eta I assume Mr.?

  169. 169.

    TooManyJens

    Here’s what I don’t get. I was assuming (I know, my bad) that the 7-Eleven robbery was how they ended up in the shootout with the MIT cops. If that’s not the case, what happened at MIT?

  171. 171.

    gogol's wife

    @ranchandsyrup:

    It’s okay. I can’t tear myself away from BJ because I have this feeling it’s going to end today and I’ll find out about it soonest here. But that’s just mysticism.

  172. 172.

    Suffern ACE

    @SatanicPanic: Well the good news is that they were foreign born and Muslim, if that makes you feel better. Although they don’t fit really any stereotype. Radical Islamic Extremists from a country with terrorism issues on the right. Otherwise normal kids who reportedly tweet rap lyrics and smoke dope who probably wouldn’t be doing any of this if they couldn’t find weapons so easily on the left. The right will blame the left for apologizing for islamic extremism in the name of multiculturalism and diversity and the left will blame the right for fear mongering and weapons. And so it goes.

    Fortunately, they’re from a a place that we can’t easily use as a pretext to bomb, but otherwise, this is just the same devate we get to have after every other mass shooting (or in this case bombing) involving young people since Columbine.

  174. 174.

    Ben Franklin

    Remember this?

    “A US citizen has been charged with planning to fly explosive-packed, remote controlled airplanes into the Pentagon and the Capitol in Washington.

    Rezwan Ferdaus, 26, was arrested and charged with the aerial bombing plot and attempts to deliver bomb-making materials for use against US troops in Iraq, US Attorney Carmen Ortiz said in Boston.

    ”The conduct alleged today shows that Mr Ferdaus had long planned to commit violent acts against our country, including attacks on the Pentagon and our nation’s Capitol,” Mr Ortiz said.

    During the alleged plot, undercover FBI agents posed as accomplices who supplied Ferdaus with one remote-controlled plane, C4 explosives, and small arms that he allegedly envisioned using in a simultaneous ground assault in Washington.

    However, ”the public was never in danger from the explosive devices, which were controlled by undercover FBI employees,” the FBI said.

    http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/man-charged-with-pentagon-bomb-plot/story-e6frg6so-1226150993933

  175. 175.

    David Koch

    this week’s big loser -> North Korea

    complete knocked their antics out of the cycle

  176. 176.

    MomSense

    @eemom:

    I’ve been worried about him, too. I looked for him at some other sites but I haven’t seen him anywhere.

  178. 178.

    Amir Khalid

    @Baud:
    Some of the regulars here used to comment at TIME’s Swampland blog. I followed them here a few years ago. I don’t know about my understandng of the US being all that great, but reading the posts and and comments has certainly helped to educate me.

  179. 179.

    Jeremy

    @I am not a kook: I’m posting the comment because I see a number of white folks and the media trying to place the blame on a “non white” person since this attack happened. They are clearly white and people need to stop with the racism. I don’t recall people prior to this attack questioning whether a person from that region is white but as soon as we find out that a white person committed an act of terror the excuses comes out.

  181. 181.

    Suffern ACE

    @TooManyJens: At MIT they shot the cop and stole his police car. They ditched the police car and carjacked another vehicle after going to the 7-11. That was the sequence last night.

    Since there was a picture of suspect 2 at the 7-11 that was broadcast last night, I’m thinking that they didn’t “rob” the 7-11, but bought their stuff instead.

  182. 182.

    Trollhattan

    @raven:

    Wait a minute, didn’t we recently make him the right honourable Amir Khalid bin al Tunch?

    (Last week seems like a lifetime ago.)

  184. 184.

    ? Martin

    @Trollhattan:

    Wait, all the way from California?

    Fucking intertubes, how do they work!?

    (couldn’t resist – yes, scanners are streamed now)

  189. 189.

    Suffern ACE

    @Ben Franklin: So your latest line is that these two were set up and the FBI lost track of them? Or is it that they were allowed to go forward because the PTB wanted to kill immigration reform?

  192. 192.

    Trollhattan

    @Suffern ACE:

    That’s how I took it–they, or at least the younger brother, showed up on surveillance video there. Additional note, Dzhokhar ran over his brother while getting away from the cops last night.

  200. 200.

    Trollhattan

    @? Martin:

    A few years ago I tried out scanning the local po-leese and fire radios on a handheld scanner, which worked well for a few months until they aggregated all the region’s services via trunk-tracking, or whatever it was called. Rendered the scanner worthless and I’ve not thought about it since (hrrmph).

  207. 207.

    JGabriel

    @WaterGIrl:

    I’ve been mostly away from BJ for the past two months…

    Good to see you in these parts again, WaterGirl. Been wondering where you got to.

    .

  209. 209.

    I am not a kook

    @Jeremy: Maybe you should consider that you’re buying into their racist framing in treating the whole “white” / “not-white” as a legitimate and meaningful distinction.

    Just say no.

  210. 210.

    raven

    @cyntax: Oh yea. The part about realizing white folks weren’t the problem and then being killed (sort of like MLK) was pretty interesting too.

  211. 211.

    SatanicPanic

    @aimai: yep. My wife was telling me how in early CA history Japanese farmers tried to claim whitehood (whiteness?) because they saw whiteness as a matter of being higher status people not a reflection on how people actually looked. No one bought their argument, but it’s not really any less scientific than any other definition.

  212. 212.

    gelfling545

    @aimai: Sure, there was the one about the woman who immunized herself to ricin so she could kill off her relatives & inherit. It was a Tommy & Tuppence story.

  213. 213.

    cyntax

    @raven:

    It is interesting how he got shot after his message and thinking evolved to a more inclusive mode. Wouldn’t want larger groups of people finding they have things in common.

  218. 218.

    SatanicPanic

    @I am not a kook: heh heh, I just Breitbarted you, didn’t mean it that way. I’m just trying to explain that whatever anyone thinks about their “whiteness” (who cares?), no one with eyes would call them “dark-skinned” so that’s why I am “neener-neenering” in the direction of CNN.

  219. 219.

    cyntax

    @raven:

    I always try to get my students to do more synthesis in their writing but I don’t mention the downside…

  220. 220.

    CaliCat

    Better catch him soon – for public safety reasons obviously, but also because the longer this goes on the more inept American law enforcement appears to the world. Little brother will be martyred if for nothing other than making a fool of our police agencies. They never should have let him get away last night. What a fuck up.

  224. 224.

    Jeremy

    @I am not a kook: Please ! I’m not the one with the issue. It’s people trying to blame “dark skinned” people for terror attacks and then making excuses when we discover they were white guys. People who are coming up with this “they are not white” crap are the ones with the issue.

  225. 225.

    WaterGIrl

    @JGabriel: Glad to see everybody again, and nice to know I’ve been missed! I’ve missed you all, too.

    Now where can I find the cliff notes version of BJ for the past 2 months? Who got a job while I was gone? Who had a baby? Is gex doing okay? Is the kitchen remodel done? How are the chickens? Somebody hurt their foot, but I don’t know who. New boyfriends? Hopefully no one lost a job. Cole got a kitty. And a girlfriend? And went to a meetup? There’s so much I don’t know. :-(

  228. 228.

    Amir Khalid

    @Joel:
    If Dzokhar has indeed killed himself, one might be content that rough justice had been done. But then the truth about their motives would still be out there, with no way to get to it and learn from it. People would still be free to argue, because it was two Muslim guys, that Islam and Muslims as Muslims had something to do with this. Or that Tamerlan being somehow radicalised as a Muslim, if that’s what happened, had nothing to do with it.

  230. 230.

    lojasmo

    @Morzer:

    Actually, it would take a huge bolus of air (in the venous system) to cause problems, as it goes first to the lungs, and a lot of it could diffuse back out.

    Unless the patient has an ASD with a right to left shunt, then it could possibly cause a massive stroke.

  231. 231.

    Keith G

    @aimai: Your feelings are spot on and well stated. The most treacherousness real estate is usually occupied by those least able to protect themselves.

    Also too, because of the way Texas pays for education, a dangerous business that pays it’s property tax bill is seen as necessary to small town. Ironically, that business helped pay for the school that it just destroyed.

  232. 232.

    Keith G

    @Punchy: I hope that this was an attempt at comedy. I would like to believe that you not so emotionally disconnected from the plight of other humans.

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