2 bombs explode at Boston Marathon-terrorist attack?

[Apone]

Furthermore, what strikes me as especially peculiar is how well planned out this whole attack was... yet, there were no provisions made for an escape plan. This is the fact that does not sit right with me at all.

I don't think it's particularly hard to make bombs and put them in a backpack… I would say that escaping a gigantic manhunt while having your face plastered across international headlines is much much much harder. There's also the possibility that they just didn't care about whether or not they would escape… if they were interested in that, they probably wouldn't have robbed that store either. It could be that they just flat out hate people and wanted to hurt them, or just liked the idea of causing suffering and chaos… or thought they did, anyways. Who knows if they felt guilty afterwards or not-- I'm sure that most of us would have, but if you can bring yourself to do something like that then it probably isn't going to be so hard to convince yourself that you don't feel bad about it.

I'm really having a hard time understanding why so many people are jumping to the conclusion that the government was involved. Maybe they will pass some laws in the wake of this happening, but why is it so hard to believe that two people were able to pull this off? Just like Sandy Hook-- as horrible as it is, this kind of thing really isn't so unlikely. All of the materials needed to make bombs are widely available. You can easily buy guns if you want to go on a rampage. You can find information on pretty much anything online-- it's actually really scary just how easy it is.

The biggest obstacle for most people with something like this is finding the willpower... but when you feel like you're justified in 'fighting back against a corrupt system/evil empire', then that makes it a LOT easier. It's much easier to hurt someone when you think they're evil-- it's also why you get people beating up Muslims, blaming Jews for the world's problems, and demanding that pedophiles get tortured to death. It's the same basic idea with terrorists or disillusioned teens or these guys… the US is evil, so they can hurt people and it's all good.

And the US isn't exactly popular with the international community… personally, I think that the whole paranoid government conspiracy schtick is just a comforting retreat, because it beats admitting that this kind of thing IS random AND somewhat easy to execute, and could happen to pretty much anyone at any time… the only thing that's preventing it is that most people have at least a vague sense of having something to lose. If you take that away from people, then they're either going to get better or self-destruct… but sometimes, they go a step further and do something like this.

 

[sprinkles]

[MENTION=5090]Apone[/MENTION]

Yeah. Not to sound flippant or disrespectful, but more thought probably goes into making my lunch than was put into these bombs.

Edit: and to put this into perspective, people are giving too much credit to the bombers while jumping to conclusions.

For example, the idea that the bombs were timed so as to go off when the most runners are finishing - not necessarily true. The bombs were not very effective on the runners themselves, you can even see it in the footage where the bombs actually go off. It was the spectators whom suffered the most from the bombs. To say it was so coordinated is speculative and giving them more credit than they deserve.

 

[CindyLou]

I didn't feel much about the Boston Bombing. I think it's sad that people who are passionate about something in their lives were killed while doing it. Like most people my bullshit alarms were going off. I think that this is just another situation where the government created a scenario in order to carry out some other plans of theirs. I think the government has been itching to put martial law into effect for a long time and is eager to make excuses to eliminate as many rights as possible for its citizens. Thank God I don't live there. Most people don't want to believe that its own government would act against its people but just look at the countless other countries that are currently doing the same. That's what happens when human beings are in control.

I'm interested to see what the fallout of this is going to be. I feel sorry for the two men who are suspected because I just have this feeling that they didn't do this whole thing. But someone has to die for the government's cause.

I didn't either. Which was a strange reaction for me. Maybe a little anxiety to the idea that a bro can't run a race these days w/o getting blown up.

I don't think it was the government. Not ours anyway. They routinely send checks to dead people.

 

[this is only temporary]

I didn't either. Which was a strange reaction for me. Maybe a little anxiety to the idea that a bro can't run a race these days w/o getting blown up.

I don't think it was the government. Not ours anyway. They routinely send checks to dead people.

Well, Cindy Lou, perhaps the government doesn't want us to run races, but instead thinks we should be invading Chechnya. (Or the Czech Republic, if you ask some very confused people...) Kind of like the recent highly successful government conspiracy to pass background checks on guns. :S

And I was terribly saddened by it. It seemed to me like nothing more or less than a desire to hurt others as badly as possible, with no particular goal in mind. Or if it was a goal, it was a delusional one, and everything points to it being islamic extremists, however much some people would prefer it to be the US government.

 

[Apone]

Well, Cindy Lou, perhaps the government doesn't want us to run races, but instead thinks we should be invading Chechnya. (Or the Czech Republic, if you ask some very confused people...) Kind of like the recent highly successful government conspiracy to pass background checks on guns. :S

And I was terribly saddened by it. It seemed to me like nothing more or less than a desire to hurt others as badly as possible, with no particular goal in mind. Or if it was a goal, it was a delusional one, and everything points to it being islamic extremists, however much some people would prefer it to be the US government.

Are you being ironic here?

I'm sure that the US government understands that an invasion of Russia would be inviting global nuclear holocaust.

Wait-- yes, you are… you are being ironic.
Sorry.

 

[Stu]

I didn't feel much about the Boston Bombing. I think it's sad that people who are passionate about something in their lives were killed while doing it. Like most people my bullshit alarms were going off. I think that this is just another situation where the government created a scenario in order to carry out some other plans of theirs. ..................I feel sorry for the two men who are suspected because I just have this feeling that they didn't do this whole thing. But someone has to die for the government's cause.

It would appear that part of this master plan is to have us believe that the suspected bombers would agree with you.

 

[this is only temporary]

Yes indeedy, I was being ironic. I do not think the end goal of the Boston Marathon bombing was a plot to get the US to invade anyone, or to get people to stop running. Half the people I know are now training for marathons. That probably won't last too long, but hey, good for them.

I suppose what actually happens in the upcoming weeks remains to be seen.

Similarly, people thought the Newtown shootings were an engineered plot to grab guns from US citizens on the part of the Obama administration/whothefuckever, and what actually happened was that nothing much changed, except that gun manufacturers have been doing a booming business, and are hiring, and their stock is going up. So, if it was a plot, it definitely failed. Maybe it was a plot on the part of the gun manufacturers all along. (Again, irony.) It was a disturbed individual with a gun, people. Lot of them out there.

There's a recurring pattern of "Oh! a bomb went off! Must be a frame up by the US government, poor innocent bombers, I feel so sorry for them."

I do not understand why people would feel sorry for the Boston bombers. Even the Imam of Boston derided them as criminals and wrote an article about how they are not part of his community or religion, etc. etc. etc.

 

[Apone]

Well, to be fair, Sandy Hook did end up changing the gun laws in a lot of states.

http://news.msn.com/us/video?videoid=e94658a8-523f-5ade-f42b-5f7bdab778ce&ap=true

 

[this is only temporary]

Fair enough. As a matter of fact, Sandy Hook resulted in a lot of interesting laws, and a lot of gun and ammo sales:
http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/201...-requiring-citizens-to-own-guns-and-ammo?lite

(Honestly, that one was kind of like passing a law to require citizens to wear pants, though, so I'm not sure if it counts. Sigh.)

 

[Faye]

I have seen conflicting stories about what happened to the guy they caught. One said he was shot in a firefight with police. Another said he shot himself in the neck in an attempted suicide but failed.

Supposedly he is awake now and talking. The more that comes out about this, the worse it gets.

 

[Apone]

The 'conspiracy' continues:

http://www.ibtimes.com/boston-bombi...naev-spurred-us-wars-iraq-afghanistan-1211371

-The brothers did it because of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan-- it was some kind of 'protest'.
-They learned how to make the bombs online-- all of the instructions were outlined by Al Quaeda,
-The bombs 'were composed of ball bearings, metal shards and BBs'.
-They were apparently acting alone.

Therefore, it was a false flag and the government is going to ban the Internet, BBs, ball bearings, pressure cookers, metal, and being alone.

Part of me actually thinks that the reason people are sticking up for this kid is because he's young and cute. I don't want to believe it, but I do.

 

[Kgal]

The 'conspiracy' continues:

http://www.ibtimes.com/boston-bombi...naev-spurred-us-wars-iraq-afghanistan-1211371

-The brothers did it because of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan-- it was some kind of 'protest'.
-They learned how to make the bombs online-- all of the instructions were outlined by Al Quaeda,
-The bombs 'were composed of ball bearings, metal shards and BBs'.
-They were apparently acting alone.

Therefore, it was a false flag and the government is going to ban the Internet, BBs, ball bearings, pressure cookers, metal, and being alone.

Part of me actually thinks that the reason people are sticking up for this kid is because he's young and cute. I don't want to believe it, but I do.

The government doesn't want to "do" any of those things.

The people in power, however, want Americans scared.

 

[Cornerstone]

Could just be one that slipped through the net. The ones who get caught are often pretty basic designs.
But they do usually catch people fleeing, which suggests proper planning.
The 7/7 attacks got people out of the tubes, then hit the buses...it is an escalation...making nowhere feel safe.
These ones seemed to catch those at the finish line and further down also - but the point about the bomb barely touching the road are true.

There was one that was foiled in England where a car was rigged to explode with nails outside a London nightclub at closing time then, when people fled around the corner - another bomb was rigged to go off a few minutes later. Nails would cause horrific injuries as well and they're probably not too difficult to make by bomb-making standards...but I have no expertise in that area...except what I learnt from Fight Club :lol:

I'm really not sure catching the perpetrators is as important as keeping an eye on what changes now.
As I said in my first post on this thread, the reaction - whether planned or not - will be potentially the worst thing to come out of this.

The sickening feeling came from this for me, less so because of the dead and wounded.
People make a valid point that other tragedies are not given the same coverage but that is because they have a much smaller geopolitical aftershock...if any at all.
It's not really the valuation of one life over another but simply a fact that an attack on the USA has greater repercussions than identical one in Pakistan.

I think this is more to do with economics and politics than valuing the lives of white people over others.
The status quo does not care about white people more, there are just more of them who benefit from maintaining the status quo.
There are millions of white people who are as disposable as any person of colour.

 

[Nixie]

look at how long it took the cops to enter colombine high school. they have a real aversion to getting shot.

Also this is considered one of the earliest mass killing events, there wasn't a training manual for this type of event. Standard op used to be to just wait it out because most armed intruders would be taking hostages. Most agencies know now that in these events the goal is to kill as many as possible and to move quickly. We are going to do a mass shooter drill at my university soon. I had to take an online training course on it. Such a sad comment on the times.

 

[Nixie]

The government doesn't want to "do" any of those things.

The people in power, however, want Americans scared.

Bleh, I call BS. The "people in power" want the public to be as they have always been, unmotived to bring about change (apathetic) and clueless (ignorant). In most instances, that pretty much is how most citizens are. It takes more than a brief internet search and skimming articles others have written to formulate your own opinion otherwise you are just passing along information that has been spoon fed to you.

I vividly remember catching the Tonight Show where Jay Leno was doing some segment about asking the public questions. He had a picture of Richard Hatch (won the first survivor which was blared all over the universe, even though I never watched the show) and Dick Cheney (the vp of the US at the time) and asked people on the street if they recognized each one. Take a guess on who they recognized???

Scared people eventually become mobilized people. I would be more convinced about a grand conspiracy if there was evidence to make people more complacent.

 

[Cornerstone]

Bleh, I call BS. The "people in power" want the public to be as they have always been, unmotived to bring about change (apathetic) and clueless (ignorant). In most instances, that pretty much is how most citizens are. It takes more than a brief internet search and skimming articles others have written to formulate your own opinion otherwise you are just passing along information that has been spoon fed to you.

I vividly remember catching the Tonight Show where Jay Leno was doing some segment about asking the public questions. He had a picture of Richard Hatch (won the first survivor which was blared all over the universe, even though I never watched the show) and Dick Cheney (the vp of the US at the time) and asked people on the street if they recognized each one. Take a guess on who they recognized???

Scared people eventually become mobilized people. I would be more convinced about a grand conspiracy if there was evidence to make people more complacent.

To the last point - the mainstream commercial media does that.
Not to mention subsidising some of the worst food you can feed people.
But making people docile doesn't pass bills and that democracy is still there for a lot of what would need to be done to take full control.
To act out foreign policy like they do, apathy isn't enough. There needs to be enough apathy that the people will trust those in charge to handle it but not so much that it looks like the government is pushing one suggestion too hard - they can't appear to be warmongers and blood-drinkers. That can wait till lock in at the lodge.

Docility for the masses, dependence for those who would do something and force for the ones who just won't be cool.

 

[acd]

I think it's a bit unnerving that Americans are rejoicing that an entire city was put on lock down, army guys with tanks were out alongside a fleet of other law enforcement--FBI, SWAT, for an amateur making pressure cooker bombs robbing 711s who they would have found dead in some guy's boat had the property owner not gone out for a smoke. They seriously would not have found him alive had it not been for that report. They don't go after serial killers like that. Was it a show of force? Way too much overkill.

 

[MindYourHead]

I think it's a bit unnerving that Americans are rejoicing that an entire city was put on lock down, army guys with tanks were out alongside a fleet of other law enforcement--FBI, SWAT, for an amateur making pressure cooker bombs robbing 711s who they would have found dead in some guy's boat had the property owner not gone out for a smoke. They seriously would not have found him alive had it not been for that report. They don't go after serial killers like that. Was it a show of force? Way too much overkill.

I found it troubling people were so willing to let the authorities into their homes without warrants to do a search.
I wonder if any refused? What happened then?
I think I would know if a suspect were hiding in my home.

I agree with you about the overwhelming show of force. They didn't need that many cops etc. They were all there hoping they could get in on the action. Get bragging rights of "I was there." And have hopes of getting their photo taken with the bounty.

Meanwhile, bakeries were left with a lot of day old doughnuts to sell the following day. ;-)

 

[Apone]

Docility for the masses, dependence for those who would do something and force for the ones who just won't be cool.

Like the bombers?

 

[this is only temporary]

I think it's a bit unnerving that Americans are rejoicing that an entire city was put on lock down, army guys with tanks were out alongside a fleet of other law enforcement--FBI, SWAT, for an amateur making pressure cooker bombs robbing 711s who they would have found dead in some guy's boat had the property owner not gone out for a smoke. They seriously would not have found him alive had it not been for that report. They don't go after serial killers like that. Was it a show of force? Way too much overkill.

But... they weren't "just robbing 711s". They killed 4 people, very severely injured dozens (woops, didn't need your legs, didja?) they carjacked someone, and by all reports, they were planning to continue this behavior. They were throwing some kind of hand-bombs out of cars during the pursuit, at one point. If people were running around in the streets during this whole process, there would have been more injuries, almost certainly, and he could/would have hidden behind innocent people most likely to avoid getting caught. I'm not sure what would have happened but it had the potential to get really ugly. A hostage situation would have been one possibility to consider. What were the Boston authorities supposed to do? Just ignore the situation? I'm pretty sure if they did, there would have been much backlash that enough wasn't done to catch him.