Blue Mass Group

Reality-based commentary on politics.

Jan 31, 2007: Never Forget

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Today was the 3rd Anniversary of the largest terrorist attack in recent Boston history.

Okay, the terrorists were cartoon characters, and the attack was a fantastical illusion in the minds of authority, but it shut down buildings and highways, struck fear in possibly millions of people and hysteria in the media for a while, and Boston hasn’t seen a real terrorist attack to top it yet.  At the time, I responded to Boston’s hysteria with this post: What does random panic protect us from?

Several commenters expressed the hope that it would make it to Governor Patrick’s desk.  I don’t know if it has, but I hope that you’ll (re)read it now, and pass it on.

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Comments

      • More recently, the (ahem) security in place in Logan Airport every day is quite the irrational overreaction.

        • I go through Logan Security all the time-I flew 13 segments in January-and they’re mostly just incompetent. This applies to the TSA in most US airports, and this is not what I want in airport security. What we have is Security Theatre and not true security.  

        • It seems clear enough to me that the entire TSA “security” fire drill is, as Kathy observes, theater intended to persuade the traveling public that “something” is being done.

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          p>I note that the security procedures that would be effective — screening every piece of checked baggage, securing the aprons, truly effective background checks of every individual allowed access to aircraft, that sort of thing — are not being done. I also note that these far more effective steps are also far less visible. This is a pervasive pattern in today’s airport “security” — steps that are effective and unobtrusive are shunned in favor of steps that are ineffective and highly visible.

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          p>It is, in fact, security theater.

        • But either way, the insurgents patriots overreacted.  

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          p>(This was mainly to save face with their fellow revolutionaries.  All the other cities had successfully intimidated their merchants into refusing shipment, so if only Boston accepted the tea, they would look rather silly.)

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          p>However their overreaction was not nearly as bad the overreaction of the British Parliament to their terrorist act peaceful protest.  The Brits responded by closing the Port of Boston and putting Massachusetts under the direct rule of the Crown.  These and other “Intolerable Acts” directly led to the Revolution.

          • British authorities slashed rates so that even with the tax it was cheaper than what was being smuggled, but it WAS still taxed.  When the other Townshend Duties were repealed (glass, paint, lead, paper) the tea tax remained just to prove that Parliament had the authority to do so.  Of course there was no American representation in Westminster (a difference from today that the modern “tea partiers” seem to forget), so any tax was seen as an affront.

            • The Patriots didn’t like taxes, period. The justification kept switching.  (ie. the whole business with direct verses indirect taxes. “Direct taxes are intolerable!” “Oh wait, so are indirect taxes!”)  You have to keep in mind that the whole concept of representation in proportion to population did not exist in Britain yet and seats in Parliament were awarded in haphazard and very unequal fashion. (This was gradually corrected by various reform bills throughout the 19th Century, starting in 1832.) So even if the colonies had been awarded a few constituencies, the overall balance of power would not have been drastically altered.

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              p>By comparison, the concept of equal representation did not exist in much of the United States until 1964, when the Supreme Court ruled that State Legislative Districts (Reynolds v. Sims) and Congressional Districts (Wesberry v. Sanders) had to be of roughly equal population.  This concept still has not been applied to the US Senate.

              • This concept still has not been applied to the US Senate.

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                p>Both senator’s districts from the same state have to have exactly the same population  đŸ™‚

  2. “We are fortunate that no one was injured,” Coakley said at the conference. “We hope that this painful lesson will not be lived or learned again either by the communities involved or . . . Turner Broadcasting and Interference. In one sense, all’s well that end’s well, and we hope shortly we can put this behind us, but trust that this kind of episode won’t be repeated, all the while understanding that we can be no less diligent as perceived threats occur in the future.”

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    p>That could have been our new Senator.

  3. Falsicus Flagimus
    http://haskellfamily.blogspot….

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    p>Plus the ghost of Osama bin Laden endorses global warming.
    Bernie Madoff global carbon footprint bank has to go underground or get re-branded as a green jobs initiative.
    The church of climatology crumbles as scandal after scandal unfolds.

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    p>Big pharma companies/governments fighting over unused swine eugenics vaccines.  Novartis says that the “good governments”, those who stuck by the contractual obligations of buying this poison would have higher priority should a real pandemic emerge.

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    p>Last up is that other soon to be re-branded concept of government rationing/control of your decisions relating to your health.

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    p>The good thing?  The former “middle class” unemployed bum soon to be bridge abutment dweller need not ever have to worry about airplanes.

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