I just have to wonder "What the hell was she thinking?" She was asked by an airport employee about the strange device she was wearing and walked away. What did she expect to happen? People who are already blaming the police for this should put themselves in their shoes: they didn't know what the device or the putty she was carrying was and she refused to answer questions about it. What were they supposed to do? She's lucky be alive after a stunt like that. Use some common sense.
Before I had a livejournal, I wrote something on neitherday.com about school shootings. It was taken down in one of the site redesigns, but seeing as it is relevant to recent events, I thought I'd repost it here:
March 7th, 2001
School shootings, once something totally unheard of, have quickly become a part of the national landscape. Most of these shootings are performed by students who are ostracized and harassed by fellow students.
While I don't believe in violence, as someone who was picked on quite a bit in school, I can see the motivations at work inside these kids. The main difference between now and when I was in high school is that when I was in high school kids who were ostracized had no real way of striking back. Now things are different. Teenagers have now heard of a method (while not one that I endorse) of striking back.
Bullying, ostracization, teasing, vandalism, and even violent acts are committed against students who happen to be different in some way. Now, as when I was in school, there are rules against most of the offenses committed against non-conforming students. But we all know that in most situations school officials turn a blind eye to acts of harassment.
The problem of school shootings will only get worse until these problems are addressed. Unfortunately, most plans that have been adopted only increase ostracization of students that don't fit into the norm. This is equivalent to pouring gasoline on a fire to put it out. For the safety and well-being of all students we need to promote acceptance and tolerance in our schools.
The recent horrific massacres of 32 students at Virgina Tech by Cho Seung-Hui has sparked a lot of political discussion. Here is my opinion...
Psychiatry
The pro-psychiatry people were quick to make some points about the need for coercing people into treatment. Even the revelation that Cho Seung-Hui was receiving treatment and was on psychiatric medication has not silence the "control the crazies" crowd. I cannot see how he could have been controlled any further without permanently locking up anyone displaying moderate mental illness - and that comes with it's own problems, principle people hiding problematic thoughts and feelings at all, and processing them internally with no outside checks or influence.
Gun Control
The anti-gun lobby sees events like these as political gold. Obviously guns are evil and vile and nasty and wrong. But I firmly believe if just two of the people at Norris Hall beside the shooter had guns, a lot less people would have been killed. The problem isn't a surplus of guns, the problem is a lack of guns. If more citizens had the ability to defend themselves against this kind of massacre, this scale of massacre by a lone gunman couldn't happen.
Westboro Baptist Church
Fred Phelps and his gang have been protesting at funerals of queer people and queer supporters for over a decade. Most of America didn't care one lick. A couple years ago he started protesting military funerals. That really pissed people off, because unlike (known) gay people, those people mattered. Avoiding the political pitfalls of banning protests at the funerals of the filthy gays, congress passed a law banning political protests at military funerals only.
Last year, the Westboro Baptist Church announced plans to protest at the funerals for the victims of the Amish school house massacre in Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania. These people were definitely not loathsome queers. FOX News gave a couple representatives from the Westboro Baptist Church an hour of uninterrupted air time on their news radio station in exchange for WBC cancelling the protest.
What will come of their planned protests of these victims funerals, I do not know. Will FOX News give them more air time? Will the law banning protests at military funerals be extended? Who knows?
British sailors and marines were blindfolded and kept in isolation from each other during most of their 13-day detention in Iran, members of the naval crew said Friday in their first public comments since being released.
Six of the 15 captured crew held a news conference at Royal Marine Base Chivenor a day after they arrived back in Britain.
"The pressures we were subjected to were quite diverse. It was mainly psychological and emotional," said Lieut. Felix Carman.
"We were blindfolded at all times and kept in isolation from each other."
...
Carman said when they first arrived at the Tehran prison, they were blindfolded and ordered to stand against a wall with their hands bound as "people were cocking weapons in the background."
That experience was "an extremely nerve-racking occasion," said Carman. "There were lots of tactics like that that were employed."
At one point, the lone female sailor, Faye Turney, was told the other 14 sailors and marines had been sent back to Britain and that she was left alone, they said.
The British sailors were treated badly in Iranian hands. But, they are lucky the weren't captured by the Bush regime and sent to Guantanamo or Abu Ghraib. The ordeal these sailors endured was nothing compared to what the Bush administration has been promoting as standards of prisoner treatment and interrogation.
This sore of psychological and emotional abuse of prisoners is not acceptable, but Bush's long term unapologetic abuse of prisoners have made it virtually impossible for any United States ally to effectively speak out against this kind of mistreatment, and that goes doubly for the Bush's closest friend and enabler: Tony Blair.
Gun ownership is akin to being sex offender? That's the assertion of Christian Trejbal and is the attempted justification for the printing of the names and home addresses of concealed carry permit holders, including police officers and VICTIMS of domestic violence, in the Roanoke Times . The CNN piece exposing the fallout from the Roanoke Times article features a domestic violence victim now has her name and address listed publicly while her ex-husband who almost killed her won't have his information listed publicly when he gets out of prison. Who's lives are being put in danger here?
As to the assertions that public records should be public information, following that logic wouldn't the databases of holders of driver's licences need to be made public? Cars are potentially dangerous weapons, and I would like to know which of my neighbors might be driving one. That actually may not be too far off, for better or worse we are rapidly heading to a state of near-total information awareness.
I support concealed carry. People who don't have the physical prowess to put up a sufficient fight should be allowed a means of protecting themselves. Several states at this point have laws allowing concealed carry by ordinary citizens and none of them have turned into the wild west. It just makes sense to even the odds a bit. I think this would have a profound effect reducing the number of completely random committed for "coolness" or an adrenalin rush. Let a few of those assholes get their heads blown off and see how long the trend continues.
Marijuana legalization: 0 = heavy penalties for anyone caught with any quantity for any reason; 10 = anyone should be free to buy, grow and sell free from all restrictions or sin taxes.
Censorship: 0 = metering out and control all information by government is in the best interest of the people; 10 = no restrictions whatsoever on even the vilest types of porn and hate
Surveillance: 0 = government should keep no information on individuals without express written permission from the individual for each record; 10 = the government should have complete access to all records and should bug and/or tag private conversations
Free Market: 0 = all economic decisions are made by the state; 10 = business should be conducted in whatever manner those doing the business see fit, free of government interference and taxes
Imagine: you are a foot soldier in a paramilitary group whose purpose is to remake America as a Christian theocracy, and establish its worldly vision of the dominion of Christ over all aspects of life. You are issued high-tech military weaponry, and instructed to engage the infidel on the streets of New York City. You are on a mission - both a religious mission and a military mission -- to convert or kill Catholics, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, gays, and anyone who advocates the separation of church and state - especially moderate, mainstream Christians. Your mission is "to conduct physical and spiritual warfare"; all who resist must be taken out with extreme prejudice. You have never felt so powerful, so driven by a purpose: you are 13 years old. You are playing a real-time strategy video game whose creators are linked to the empire of mega-church pastor Rick Warren, best selling author of The Purpose Driven Life.
The game, slated for release by October 2006 in advance of the Christmas shopping rush, has been previewed at video game exhibitions, and reviewed by major newspapers and magazines. But until now, no fan or critic has pointed out the controversial game's connection to Mr. Warren or his dominionist agenda. ...
According to Mr. Warren, the establishment of this earthly kingdom requires "foot soldiers." As part of his plan, Mr. Warren said he would encourage laypeople to "adopt" needy villages overseas in order to plant churches, expand business opportunities, educate children, influence governments, and overthrow corrupt political leaders, whom he described as "little Saddams." Mr. Warren said his purpose is to enlist "one billion foot soldiers for the Kingdom of God" in the developing world. And the stadium crowd roared its approval.
Celebrants included Paul Kagame, the president of Rwanda, a tiny east African country that lost hundreds of thousands of people when it suffered genocide in 1994. Catholic and Protestant clergy have been convicted in connection with that genocide. Yet Mr. Kagame announced that he would allow Mr. Warren to turn his country into the first purpose driven nation. The following month, 16 Rwandan religious leaders arrived in Orange County to begin religious training at Saddleback Church. Mr. Warren has said that his global initiative was developed "underground" and in "stealth". Presumably, this was done with the assistance of Mr. Carver, who directs the Purpose Driven Church in all its activities outside North America.
I hear time and time again the Islam is the religion of violence. Islam is the religion that endangers the world. The only reason the fundamentalist Christians have not resorted to terrorism more then they have (and, yes there have been plenty of terrorist attacks by fundamentalist Christians) is that they often have access to more "acceptable" avenues to pursue their agenda, as carpet bombing civilian populations with white phosphorus is deemed more acceptable than a suicide attack. If fundamentalist Christians lose their political prestige you can expect a series of terrorist attacks from their ranks. "Last Days Crusade" would be a likely organizational name.
I'm not saying all Christian are violent, the same as not all Muslims are violent. What I am saying is that Christianity holds no moral high ground over Islam. Both have factions that want to kill all the infidels. Fundamentalism is the problem, not any particular religion.
If a person opposed to animal testing were to walk into an animal testing lab with a hatchet and a gun and proceed to attack the people there with those weapons, that person would instantly be labeled a terrorist by the media and the government, and rightly so.
Why won't the media or the government call Jacob D. Robida a terrorist? I don't know, but I'm sure it has something to do with political agendas. Let us say what they will not: LAST NIGHT there was a TERRORIST ATTACK on a GAY BAR in MASSACHUSETTS.
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The British sailors were treated badly in Iranian hands. But, they are lucky the weren't captured by the Bush regime and sent to Guantanamo or Abu Ghraib. The ordeal these sailors endured was nothing compared to what the Bush administration has been promoting as standards of prisoner treatment and interrogation.
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