In case you’re not glued to the TV, here’s the uncle of the two suspects laying it down. If you can’t watch video, key quote:
Q: What do you think provoked this?
A: Being losers, hatred to those [who could] settle themselves. These are the only reasons I can imagine of. Anything else, anything else to do with religion, with Islam, is a fraud.
ranchandsyrup
Get crazy with teh Cheez Whiz, Uncle Rico.
MikeBoyScout
Supposedly the suspects’ mother was arrested last year for shoplifting.
Zubeidat K. Tsarnaeva, 45, of 410 Norfolk St., Apt. 3, Cambridge
Via
And this would fit with Ruslan’s discussion about his brother’s family.
raven
You check this dude out? I know fucking crazy eyes when I see them.
MikeBoyScout
@3 raven: I wonder how many “Russian” fathers you know.
c u n d gulag
Conservative POV:
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!
They’re NOT LOSERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
These are EBIL MOOOOZLUM MEN, WITH EBIL SUPER-SECRET MOOOOOZLUM SUPER-POWERS!!!
And when we catch him, we “hose” him down for a while, then, OFF to Gitmo, where his EBIL SUPER-SECRET MOOOOOOOOZUM SUPER-POWERS are neutralized by sun, sea, and sharks!!!
raven
@MikeBoyScout: Zip, zero, zilch,. Are they worse than unlces?
Yutsano
@c u n d gulag:
You fergot the frickin’ laser beams. But meh.
John Cole
That guy is great.
Tone in DC
To quote a youtube commenter, you see this fool?
…Admittedly, I still have that Steely Dan song in my head from a prior thread.
“Don’t take me alive”
MattR
I can’t imagine what that uncle is going through. I don’t mean to minimize the pain of the actual victims’ families, but I have dealt with the unexpected death of a loved one so I at least have some basis for understanding what they are dealing with. But to be a relative of the people who did something so atrocious is just unimaginable to me.
raven
I’m sure the dude would be yellin Allahu Akbar in a presser on his lawn in Maryland.
raven
@MattR: He’s going through “how the fuck do I get out of here alive?”
Violet
@John Cole: Yeah, I love this uncle. The aunt, however, is crazy.
Poopyman
He handled a rabid pack of presscritters better than I would have, ferdammshur.
Felinious Wench
This guy’s general disgust is going to be a good thing for some ignorant assholes to see.
gbear
I have had it with these m-f reporters in my m-f yard!
TR
@Felinious Wench:
Yup.
raven
Bowhead on MSBNC’ “The National Guard in the Blackhwaks are not “depudized”. Twiced.
Wayne t
Did you see the interview with the NUTBALL aunt? Lord. ” what is this shit?”
Lots of conspiracy theories.
But the uncle is total Boss. Feel bad for them.
jrg
Dude, the very next statement he makes is that he hasn’t seen these brothers in years (either since they were kids or, later in the interview, in 2009). What in the world makes you think he’s qualified to make a statement about their motives?
raven
I ain’t buyin it.
? Martin
@Violet: She raises a good point though. Growing up, the Soviets framed everyone for everything. Hard to break out of that thinking when you lived a life of it.
Svensker
Alert out for a green 99 Honda Mass. plate 116 GC7 twitter.com/Boston_Police/status/325310166503411712/photo/1
Driver assumed armed and dangerous.
gbear
@jrg: I thought ‘because they’re losers’ pretty much covered it. He’s taking great pains, over and over, to say that religion doesn’t excuse this kind of shit.
Violet
@Wayne t: Yeah, the aunt is a crazy piece of work.
Sounds like the whole family has some issues. The dad departed to Russia. The mother got arrested for shoplifting. The older son (the dead one) got charged with domestic violence. The uncle said he didn’t have much to do with them, they weren’t good influences. Poor younger kid had a tough road.
MattR
@Wayne t: @? Martin: I can only imagine my reaction if I was told two of my cousins were murderers but I am guessing disbelief and denial would probably be the first ones. And I am sure those would be stronger if I grew up in a country where the government controlled the media and regularly used it to manipulate its citizens.
jurassicpork
For purely bullshit reasons, I’m being investigated by Dubai law enforcement, with our government sure to follow, so if I disappear suddenly, this is the explanation why.
RoonieRoo
@raven: Bowhead? I can’t remember the last time I’ve heard someone use “bowhead”. I think you might have dated yourself and I love you.
jrg
@gbear: Do you think it’s safe to say they are not true Scotsman?
Felinious Wench
@raven: Why?
Unsympathetic
Gotta love the end of that clip, too: A few wingnuts shouting “kill, kill.”
Bobby Thomson
@Svensker: Nope. That’s stale. The Mass. state police tweeted at 11:23 they have that car (which was previously identified inaccurately as a CRV) and are no longer looking for it.
MikeBoyScout
@6 raven:
I sense you are being a bit silly, but what you saw and categorized as “crazy eyes” is a stereotypical proud “Russian” father or family man.
Is he hopping mad? Obviously. His ‘blood’ has been shamed.
This type of man with his “old country” traditions has no tolerance for the illegal and immoral actions of his nephews.
My point, raven, is he is not crazy. And I’d bet you dollars to donuts that he was weeping bitterly before that press mob and shall weep more before the sun sets. Not for his nephews or brother, but in remorse that his ‘blood’ has created such a tragedy.
это нормально
Heliopause
Well, good, that makes it simple. We identify all the “losers” in middle school and send them to “winner” camps, preferably in rural areas away from the population centers. Voila, no more terrorism.
I have no idea why so many are saying they “love” this guy or whatever. This is obviously a highly agitated individual who, under intense pressure from media, law enforcement, and society in general is being made into a spectacle. This is not something we should be celebrating.
Bobby Thomson
@Felinious Wench: Meh. Even the ignorant assholes here are clinging to their bigotry. Just check the thread.
Wayne t
I think moreover the uncle has it right. It seems most of these types who do this have lives that aren’t going the way they want. Timothy McVeigh types etc… It doesn’t even matter what the cause is – they find an identity and latch on to it.
I was surprised the older one had married and had a child, but then read he had a domestic assault against him. I’d be interested to find out what the relationship was with the wife and child. I always theorize most of them just can’t get a girl, have no career, get depressed and have no reason to live anymore until they find a “cause” which gives them power and respect they can’t find anywhere else.
pete
I watched the whole thing. I respect that guy. He was trying. And then as he walked away you can clearly hear someone yell “Kill! Kill!” and I begin to despair for humanity. Again.
gene108
At times like this, I’d just like to say, I’m glad Obama got re-elected.
The thought of President Romney trying to placate the right-wingers over something like this is a scary, scary thought.
They already went to war in Iraq, so President Romney would have to top that.
Ben Franklin
Jahar tweets.
He is sweating with expectation.
gawker.com/5995065
JCT
The younger one seemed like he was far more together than the rest of his family, I wonder if this started like a John Muhammed – Lee Malvo sort of thing.
Oy, father is Russia just quoted saying that the younger one should turn himself in because he “has a bright future”.
Pinkamena Panic
@Heliopause: Aaaaand today’s Self-Righteous Asshole Talking Point has just been handed to us!
? Martin
@Wayne t:
I think that’s the general consensus about suicide bombers and the like. Someone already on the edge of suicide seeking (or being fed) additional rationale to carry it out. It’s like Mad Libs – just plug in islam, or abortion, or immigration, or whatever is strong enough to stir emotions enough to carry them over the line. There’s been times when it’s been environmental and anti-war movements. It just depends on how we whip ourselves up.
Unsympathetic
@raven:
Huh? Seriously, there’s exactly zero crazy about that guy. Multiple times in that clip he answers something passionately and his next answer is very calm and consistent.
Seems like that uncle took the crappy family he was given and is trying to make the most of his life.
The other relative (aunt?) is disconnected from reality.. this guy is completely sane, and pissed at the situation his crazy relatives put him in.
Joel
@Heliopause: Sometimes there is no fucking solution.
Ben Franklin
@Pinkamena Panic:
today’s Self-Righteous Asshole Talking Point has just been handed to us!
Unfortunately, that’s a very low bar to hurdle.
NotMax
Bravo, Madame Secretary.
geg6
@MikeBoyScout:
I agree. That totally lines up with the old school Russian/Turkish parents I have dealt with here at the university. You get these types of reactions when their kids do something stupid like skipping all their classes for a semester or getting caught drinking or smoking pot on campus (we have a dry campus).
GregB
So, there are reports the mother was arrested for shop lifting at a Lord and Taylor and in front of a Lord and Taylor is where the second bomb appears to have been placed.
It also looks as though the first bomb was placed under or very near the Russian Federation flag.
TooManyJens
@jrg:
It seemed to me more like that was a statement to them (well, to the one still alive) than a statement about their motives. “You think you’re some big deal? You think religion excuses this? Well fuck you, kid, you’re a loser and we’re all ashamed to be associated with you.”
rikyrah
they are so trying to de-WHITE these young terrorists. I find it hilarious….sad and pitiful, but hilarious.
not White?
go up to any Eastern European and tell them that they aren’t White…
they’ll be ready to beat you down.
Pinkamena Panic
@NotMax:
SEE SHE CAN’T ANSWER CUZ SHE’D HAVE TO ADMIT IT WAS TRUE! INSIDE JOB INFOWARS SHEEPLE SHILL GUMMINT FALSE FLAG TROOOOOOOOOOOF!!!111ONEONEELEVENTY
(ye gods it’s even painful to pretend to be that stupid)
gbear
@jrg: I see it as the uncle saying that if the nephews did it out of religious fanaticism, it was because they were losers first.
I am not a kook
I hope all the jackasses on this blog who prematurely salivated over the perps obviously being right wing nuts and laughed at right wing blogs for their stupid MOOSZLIM wankery have the humility for some public mea culpas now. Yes, I do mean both sides do it: both sides are stupid assholes in this case.
The media and blogosphere have really covered themselves in shit. I think this is the final straw for me to stop reading circle jerk blogs.
(For the record, I though the right wing nut scenario sounded plausible but at least I kept my stupid mouth shut because obviously nobody knew anything, me included.)
MikeBoyScout
@47 geg6: When I first watched this clip it reminded me immediately of hundreds of Central Asian men living in Russia who I’ve encountered.
And Cole’s observation @8 “That guy is great.” is stereotypical of what most of the male reaction will be from guys in the mid-atlantic US.
beltane
@rikyrah: If these men are going to be classified as non-white, that means Tony Scalia, Joe Arpaio, Eric Canotr and a large percentage of Northeastern whites will also have to be considered not-white from now on. It will be like the early 20th century all over again.
Svensker
@Bobby Thomson: Thanks.
FlipYrWhig
@rikyrah: As I understand it, the Caucasus is where the distinction (at least the one we think we know in the US) between Slavs and Arabs gets particularly blurry.
MikeBoyScout
@49 TooManyJens: BINGO
Pinkamena Panic
@I am not a kook: Eat my ass then get out.
GregB
@GregB:
I have gone back and checked the second bomb site pictures and it doesn’t appear to be in front of a Lord and Taylor.
Thus ends today’s mindless speculation.
Time for a walk.
Violet
@TooManyJens:
I thought the same thing. The uncle also says they brought shame upon his family. And shame seems to be a very big deal to him. He’s angry at the boys for shaming his family. He thinks they’re punks and wants them (well, the one left alive) to know it.
NotMax
@rikyrah
The eternalism of xenophobia, the fallback to tribalism.
A century and a half ago, in Boston, the Irish were excluded from the category of “white.”
Joel
@I am not a kook: A fair sentiment that I (somewhat) agree with. The consequences are far smaller for leftosphere speculation, though. Hard to deny that.
Helps to keep a big filter on when reading anything these days, especially in an explicitly political forum.
? Martin
@beltane: See, the GOP is fucking loaded to the brim with minorities. Boehner is obviously descended from orange slave folk.
JCT
@Pinkamena Panic: And here’s another beaut – this guy is getting a new one ripped for him on Twitter and his Facebook page (where he apologized for the “timing” of his comment /facepalm).
Boston’s cowering liberals”
beltane
@GregB: I wondered about the Lord & Taylor connection. The family seems excitable to say the least; if they felt L & T had dishonored their mother it’s easy to see them holding a grudge.
jrg
@I am not a kook: DING DING DING! We have a winner!
beltane
@? Martin: Legend has it that Boehner’s ancestors labored away in Willy Wonka’s cocoa mines.
NotMax
Way early yet (should go without saying), but no reporting I’ve heard on whether they obtained their guns legitimately.
Trollhattan
@gene108:
President Romney [oh, I crack myself up] would be poring over maps, looking for Bankvaultistan.
“There it is. We’re going to war, chums!”
Forum Transmitted Disease
@jurassicpork: I wouldn’t notice, except the number of your posts begging for rent money would go down.
Christ, at least Special Timmy is willing to draw pictures for money. You won’t even do that.
Kinda hope this all works out for the Dubai folks, it’d be nice to have one less asshole around here.
MikeBoyScout
Boston Bomb Suspect’s Dad Tells Him to Surrender, Warns ‘ Hell Will Break Loose’ if Son Dies
WereBear
I do think the uncle is making the best of a terrible situation; is anything he is saying not the truth?
And it seems the first terrible act the older brother did was to destroy his younger brother; the one who was doing well and had a bright future ahead.
What a mass of seething resentment that older brother must have been. If only the younger one had resisted.
Trollhattan
@MikeBoyScout:
I see the
applegrenade did not fall far from the tree.Villago Delenda Est
@I am not a kook:
You’re not very bright, or, in the alternative, don’t have reading comprehension skills past the 6th grade, do you?
beltane
@MikeBoyScout: He sounds like he thinks the KGB was behind this. The man needs to take a ticket and wait in the growing CT line.
Joel
@beltane: off topic victory of the day.
Spaghetti Lee
@I am not a kook:
There was way too much premature speculation going on. On Monday/Tuesday, there were people swearing up and down that it had to, just had to be an anti-tax tea party guy. Patriot Day, Tax Day, Boston-it all made sense. Well, the world doesn’t make sense. I’m not trying to concern troll, but people who kept saying that ought to have some humble pie and realize the world isn’t always the way their preconceived notions say it should be.
However, the MSM and the right wing have been worse. The NY Post has been criminally incompetent. And the calls for Muslim blood on Free Republic and the Blaze should still be ignored.
Flying Squirrel Girl
@MattR: Years ago I attended a wedding at which the parents of Eric Harris (of Columbine infamy) were guests. The bride was a friend of mine who worked in a VERY small office with Cindy Harris. The day of the attack they turned on the TV and Cindy saw her son’s school under lockdown. At the insistence of her boss, she left work to make sure Eric was OK. Later that day, the rest of the folks in the office saw her house in a picture on CNN.
The day of the wedding, the Harrises very much kept to themselves, but were surrounded by a buffer of friends and co-workers from the office who never let the rest of the guests get too close.
Villago Delenda Est
@NotMax:
I wish that some guys with vowels ending their surnames (Tancredo, Scalia, zb) would remember that their status as “white” wasn’t exactly solid some 50 years ago.
MikeBoyScout
@74 Trollhattan: That’s not a fair speculation at all; even given the headline by ABC News.
The man is talking about his sons, and he is talking from an absolute ignorant perspective … not reading blogs or watching TV.
I am not a kook
@Villago Delenda Est: What, you’re saying no commenters here blamed right wing nutjobs for the bombing?
Mike E
@I am not a kook: Congratulations! Don’t let the sign-out screen cut off yer precious douche nozzle.
beltane
Suspect smoked a lot of pot and was a notoriously bad driver: guardian.co.uk/world/2013/apr/19/boston-mit-police-dead-watertown#block-51719aa8e4b0960bb64e9286 The pot he smoked must not have been very good.
Villago Delenda Est
@Spaghetti Lee:
I don’t recall anyone here asserting with metaphysical certitude that the bombing was the act of right wing nutjobs.
I do recall people pointing out that some of the circumstances made that a plausible scenario, but we don’t know anything right now other than bombs went off and people are dead and injured.
Contrast this with our friends on the right who WERE metaphysically certain that it had to be Muslims or Koreans.
NotMax
Random synapse firing:
Anyone in the Boston/Watertown/Cambridge are should have no trouble successfully challenging a parking citation dated 4/19.
Villago Delenda Est
@I am not a kook:
Blamed? No. Speculated the possibility? Yes.
But as my 85 indicates, on this site, we openly say things like “I’m speculating” or “I have a feeling” and we don’t say “start the revenge bombing in five minutes, because we KNOW who did this” when it’s painfully obvious that we know NOTHING, unlike say the dipshits at the NY Post or CNN.
jl
@Spaghetti Lee:
” Well, the world doesn’t make sense. ”
That is true, it does not always make sense. That looks like the case here.
We only have some very vague indications from perhaps unreliable first reports about that the motives may have been. And whether this was a lone nutcase persuading his brother to do something horrible, or might be connections to something else.
So, people should be very careful about spinning their favorite scenarios to make any kind of point right now.
NotMax
@NotMax
Boston/Watertown/Cambridge area
(no edit capability)
Ramiah Ariya
The reason left wingers wanted the suspects to be non-Muslim is not far to seek – they knew it would cause more discrimination; more needless foreign attacks; more hate mongering;
The reason the left wingers would rather it be a domestic act by some Tea Party dude is for a similar reason – it would cause zero consequences for everyone in the US.
Aren’t these both ideas noble and true? Isn’t it true that if the perpetrators were domestic and white, we would see a kind of status quo with no actual policy changes or effects on ordinary people?
Similarly, the reason right wingers WANTED it to be a Muslim is so that they can continue the hate speech and targeting.
The reason right wingers did not want it to be a white person is because they cannot, then, cause hate based mobilization on this issue.
Both these ideas are ignoble.
So, both sides are not doing the same thing, by speculating. One is in fear of the other’s hatred and its consequences.
Villago Delenda Est
@MikeBoyScout:
He’s also commenting from the perspective of someone who has lived his entire life in a corrupt police state where people were “disappeared” routinely, especially given their ethnic background.
scav
We’re getting competition — collaboration? — on the entirely freaking weird front.
Spanish anarchists send Catholics explosive packages containing vibrators
Mini-bombs with actual explosives inside packages containing vibrators have been sent by an anarchist group in Spain to prominent Roman Catholics. They call themselves the “Anticlerical Pro Sex Toys Group” or sometimes the “Artisans Club for New Uses for Coffee” and claim to have made a bomb out of an espresso coffee machine packed with gunpowder and shrapnel that was planted at a bank branch. Police think they’re behind a (failed) pressure cooker bomb.
It is somehow very Spanish.
NotMax
Will Susan Collins publicly comment now that we know the fugitive became a naturalized citizen last year?
Spaghetti Lee
@scav:
Our chief weapons are fear, surprise, an almost fanatical hatred of the Pope, and exploding vibrators.
Roger Moore
@I am not a kook:
And some of us were actually willing to stand up and say that premature speculation was foolish.
gogol's wife
@Ramiah Ariya:
I actually agree with this, when I look into myself. I refrained from commenting, but I too was hoping it would turn out to be a right-wing American.
In a way, it has turned out to be Americans — they were raised here, after all. It’s a weird mashup. That’s why the signs didn’t add up — why Boston on Patriots’ Day? Because they were Bostonians!
Ramiah Ariya
To me this attack seems likely to be a lone wolf kind of attack, very similar to the DC sniper shooting. In fact, I don’t think it falls into the general definition of terrorism – an attack on civilians for POLITICAL purposes is terrorism. In this case, I cannot find any political purpose at all.
In other words, the uncle is probably right – there is likely no connection between this and Chechnyan political goals or Islamic goals.
Punchy
Here’s my question– if they dont catch the bastard today, is Beantown under quanantine tomorrow, too? What about Sunday?
How long do they expect peeps to hide scared in their houses?
Higgs Boson's Mate
@I am not a kook:
So you’re going back to plain old circle jerks? Bet they held the pivot-man spot open for you.
jrg
@I am not a kook: Here is the thread you are looking for. There was a shitload of speculation around ‘wingers, virtually none around any of the other usual suspects.
MikeBoyScout
@91 Villago Delenda Est: Yep. I am sure you understand as I do that empathy is a tough thing to pull off in normal times and situations. Nothing about this is normal. Cultural parallax is a given.
eemom
@Villago Delenda Est:
Here is what I don’t get, though: WHY this intense need to speculate, which has been on prominent display here all week, including today and on this thread, albeit the focus of the speculation has shifted with the new info?
“Irresponsible not to” jokes aside, I didn’t realize until now that armchairdom is such a primal instinct for so many on this blog.
raven
Wow, woke up from my nap and see folks don’t agree with me. Dang.
Roger Moore
@Villago Delenda Est:
I do.
NotMax
@MikeBoyScout
That’d be a great name for a garage band.
Calouste
@FlipYrWhig:
There are quite a lot of Turks, Kurds and Iranians in the area between the Slavs and the Arabs.
EconWatcher
@Roger Moore:
Isn’t premature speculation (is there any other kind?) one of the purposes of blog comments? Yeah, I get some good information from this blog, because there are some very smart people here, from varied walks of life. But it’s also a place where people float various theories and notions.
There’s no two-source rule for blog comments, nor anything like it, nor should there be. Now if somebody says they know something to be true, without any apparent basis, I reserve the right to call them names.
But I don’t see any harm in someone typing, “Gee, Patriot’s Day and Tax Day–sounds like a right-wing nutjob.” Do you? Entirely different issue than if it’s someone on CNN. Then it has some apparent authority, and goes to a mass audience, and could have some real-world effect.
SatanicPanic
@Ramiah Ariya: this is a great point. In this case it’s only equivalent if the ends are equivalent.
raven
@EconWatcher: Or “I think the uncle looks crazy”?
SatanicPanic
@Roger Moore: I don’t think speculating on these things is a big deal, but I don’t understand the impulse to do it though either. That could just be because I just don’t like egg on my face.
Bruce S
@rikyrah:
“Tell E Europeans they aren’t ‘white'”?
It sounds more convincing in the original German…
Villago Delenda Est
@eemom:
Well, for one thing, we’re humans. It’s part of our nature.
For another thing, a lot of people want to get anti-memes out there early to compete with the conventional wisdom of our glorious MSM gatekeepers who will assert with certitude that it was a Saudi national or that an arrest has been made, causing the FBI, of all institutions, to issue a statement that amounts to a bitch slap of a major news network.
Ramiah Ariya
Overall, though, any domestic “terror” act with bombs is closely watched by both sides, left and right. Once information comes out, they both act with glee, based upon which side”lost” this time.
In reality, this situation has come about because the right wing IS entirely driven by bigotry on this, and nobody from the political leaders to MSM counter them much. It has gotten to such an extent that you cannot even call racism or bigotry for what it is – instead you have to deal with debates about “peaceful religion” and so on. The fact is that the same set of blowhards who were lynching a hundred years back now have their sights set on some other group of people.
TooManyJens
@SatanicPanic: I think it’s just because people want things to make sense.
Villago Delenda Est
@Roger Moore:
Who did so?
I’m curious, because the tenor I got from the entire conversation on Monday, at least, was “well it could be…” followed by “but we don’t know anything.”
If someone specifically said that “no doubt in my mind it was a tea party asshat, let’s round them all up and put them into FEMA camps”, which would be the equivalent of what was going on over at FreeRepublic, I’d like to know who it was.
gbear
@jrg: Why don’t you just head on back to that thread and wander through those glory days when you were above it all.
SatanicPanic
@TooManyJens: I don’t always get that impulse either. I think I practiced too hard at being glib.
MikeBoyScout
BREAKING: No News Breaking
I am not a kook
@Villago Delenda Est: Yeah, right, if you say so boss. I know what I read in my limited sixth grade level and not being that bright. I also know that you’re part of the problem. Your rageoholic first impulse is to attack the person, not the argument.
Of course you also call for executions of anybody you don’t agree with in the media in almost every thread. “Tumbrel rides” ring a bell? Eliminationist rhetoric is eliminationist rhetoric and I personally find it disgusting.
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.
Villago Delenda Est
@TooManyJens:
A lot of us want to understand what would cause people to treat other people this way.
I’ve got this instinctive and heightened through military training desire to know the adversary. In order to counter, if not defeat the adversary. What motivates these incidents? Is it politics? Religion? Poor self-image? Frustration with dating? What exactly? What are the warning signs, and how do we address them? How can we act to prevent tragedies like this, while at the same time preserving as much as possible the open society we wish to live in?
These are not easy questions to even begin to answer.
raven
Tuned in just in time for the “chickie run” Rebel. Natalie sure looks good holding that hamburger.
I am not a kook
@Roger Moore: Yes, you’re right of course. Also, too, I always enjoy reading your comments because they always start from a higher ground.
raven
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!
PurpleGirl
@eemom: I think people speculate out of a need to understand what is happening. Ambiguity about the reasons for something provoke deep anxiety and many (most?) people need to have an answer to the questions of who, why, etc. YMMV.
max
@GregB: I have gone back and checked the second bomb site pictures and it doesn’t appear to be in front of a Lord and Taylor.
It was across the street from the Lord and Taylor (on the south side – the L&T is on the north side). That’s where they got some of the cam shots from.
max
[‘At no point today has the bombing started to make sense.’]
Villago Delenda Est
@I am not a kook:
Yeah, I do.
Because they’re tainting the consciousness of every person in this country with their fucked up “news” that doesn’t give a rat’s ass about truth, only in attracting eyeballs to boost ratings, and through that enrich the rentier assholes that own the damn things.
A healthy percentage of what’s wrong with this country can be traced back to them, and their “if it bleeds, it leads” mentality that increases the fear among the populace.
Now, I want you to go back and tell me who, with absolute certitude, said it was a right-wing nutjob. I wish those asserting THIS thing with certitude could cite someone.
Maude
@raven:
Is your wife free from the pain?
That nerve must have breathed a sigh of relief.
I’m so glad she came through this well.
Amir Khalid
For what it’s worth, this non-American Muslim badly wanted the Boston Marathon bombers to be non-Muslims. For the obvious reasons, naturally. The very reasons why Uncle Ruslan is up there saying these boys are losers, my family’s not like that, my religion’s not like that, my people are not like that. No one wants the shame of that association.
All this speculation that I’ve been reading since Monday only tells me about the biases and political interests of whoever is retailing the speculation. The best thing to hope for is that Dzokhar Tsarnaev is caught alive, so that he can be questioned about Tamerlan’s state of mind and his own, and real information obtained from him.
I am not a kook
@Higgs Boson’s Mate: I sure hope so :) At least there is some pleasure to be had in the old way.
OT, but I have been slowly pruning my RSS links and BJ is the almost sole survivor in the political blog category. Back when Cole was posting spittle flecked screeds, the commentariat felt the need to step up to the plate and be funny as hell. Nowadays Cole is happy and posts about puppies and unicorns (and I’m really happy for him!), some other frontpagers feel they need to keep throwing some emotional chum in the waters. Oh well, things change and I’ve changed.
Does Kay have her own blog?
JoyfulA
@Ramiah Ariya: Beautifully reasoned.
Trollhattan
@Amir Khalid:
Well said. I’m afraid there are tens of thousand American Sikhs looking over their shoulders today and wondering who will be coming sfter them, this time.
We’re slow learners, sometimes.
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
@Jeremy:
One of the nice things about enjoying white privilege is that you get to redefine who counts as “white” and who doesn’t to suit the needs of the moment. Call it The Principle of Highly Convenient Elastic Whiteness. Sort of like stretch briefs, but even more comfortable.
I am not a kook
@Villago Delenda Est: Apart from making you feel good, how do you think calling for death of media personalities is advancing your agenda? You think that’s a winning argument for regular people? I think it’s just a form of self-pleasuring and there are better ways for that.
“Tainting the consciousness” as a capital offense is some fucked up shit. Listen to yourself. Turn off the fucking teevee and go outside.
The Moar You Know
@Villago Delenda Est: I did.
And I was at least partially right. Domestic: nailed it. They’re permanent residents. Religious fundamentalists (not expressed but implied) nailed it. Specifically American right wing: I fucked up there. They probably don’t give a shit.
Any other problems with my statement?
Roger Moore
@EconWatcher:
I see a difference between clear, explained speculation and jumping to conclusions. I don’t mind when someone says “this is what I think, and here’s why”, but I’m troubled when people express speculation as fact and act dismissive toward anyone who challenges their ideas. The first is interesting and makes us think. The second leads to the kind of stupid groupthink that we criticize the wingnuts for engaging in.
There has been a lot of casual assumption that the bombers must be right wing militia types, to the point that people have been crowing about how much egg the wingnuts will have on their faces when it turns out it was one of theirs. That’s jumping to conclusions, and it makes the people who did it look foolish. I think the people who were doing it ought to own up and admit they were wrong, so they are less inclined to make the same mistake in the future.
The Moar You Know
@Jeremy: Hitler sure didn’t think so. He thought “Slavs” were at least as bad and possibly worse than Jews.
Maybe that will help clarify some issues for you.
TooManyJens
@The Moar You Know:
Nitpick: the younger brother, at least, is a citizen. Not sure about the older brother.
Trollhattan
@The Moar You Know:
Hazy history recollection, but didn’t the Germans gain a lot of Ukranian collaborators after overrunning that part of the Soviet Union, because they felt similarly about their “inferiors”?
Mnemosyne
@jrg:
Again, I challenge you to explain in what way a couple of naturalized citizen Chechen immigrants who lived here since they were kids are the “usual suspects.” I mean, other than being raised Muslim (OOH! SCARY!), which is where I assume you’re going with it.
Mnemosyne
@Jeremy:
They’re not white because they’re Muslims.
Sad but true.
rea
@MikeBoyScout: Supposedly the suspects’ mother was arrested last year for shoplifting.
That’s a bit weird, considering the mother was arrested for shoplifting at the store with the video camera on which the bombers were observed.
Another Halocene Human
@MikeBoyScout: I wonder if this has nothing to do with being “radicalized” and everything to do with the mother having psychopathic tendencies which Tamerlan inherited, and then Tamerlan suffering brain injury while boxing leading to the initiation of violent, and previously atypical, behavior.
Some of his boxing associates said he was acting really weird just weeks before the bombing.
This leads me to believe that: ted.com/talks/jim_fallon_exploring_the_mind_of_a_killer.html
Fallon was on NPR recently where he talks about this research more.
Another Halocene Human
@rea: I thought she was arrested in NATICK, not exactly Back Bay there.
Another Halocene Human
@Jeremy: Or all the fucking jive about their big noses.
I love my FB feed, a latino activist friend was joking about how very Caucasian they are. :)
Another Halocene Human
@Heliopause: I was surprised at his openness (perhaps naivite) even talking with the media, but I was moved by his outreach to the victim’s families. I was reminded of the much-ridiculed beer summit. I think we can teach and enact peace and that was what he was doing.
Another Halocene Human
@MikeBoyScout: Keep it klassy dumfuck. I’m sure your girls deserved to have the whole US hunting for them to shame/harass/menace them.
Another Halocene Human
@WereBear: Agree, although I think at 18/19 it’s a lot to ask of a kid who either idolized his brother or might have been scared of him and came to identify with him as victims often do to act like a 30yo and walk away from the private hell big brother was weaving.
Another Halocene Human
@Ramiah Ariya: I’m actually glad it’s a couple of one-offs and not white supremacists. Violent skinhead/anti-semitic groups are a real, existential threat in the area and it’s a big relief to know that they haven’t gotten their shit together enough to be a big menace.
I also hope Boston’s response makes any would be Zakim bridge bombers shit their pants at the thought of striking a blow for the great Aryan Nation.
mclaren
Is the uncle talking about the motivation of the Boston bombers? Or the motivation of the Republican party?
Odie Hugh Manatee
@I am not a kook: “… but I have been slowly pruning my RSS links and BJ is the almost sole survivor in the political blog category.”
Please, keep pruning.