Friday, April 19, 2013

The language of terror

Charles Krauthammer  "Terrorism is speech — speech that gathers its audience by killing innocents as theatrically as possible. The 19th-century anarchist Paul Brousse called it “propaganda by deed.” Accordingly, the Boston Marathon attack, the first successful terror bombing in the United States since 9/11, was designed for maximum effect. At the finish line there would be not only news cameras but also hundreds of personal videos to amplify the message."
"But what message? There was no claim of responsibility, no explanatory propaganda. Indeed, was it terrorism at all?"
Political Cartoons by Bob Gorrell
....
The use of the word complicates things for this administration in this way:
"To use the word terrorism, meaning deliberate attack, would have undermined the blame-shifting and raised exactly the questions — about warnings ignored, inadequate security, absence of contingency plans — that have dogged the administration for months."
....
"Yet Obama couldn’t say the word. This is no linguistic triviality. He wouldn’t be tripping over himself to avoid any reference to Islam if it was insignificant.
Obama has performed admirably during the Boston crisis, speaking both reassuringly and with determination. But he continues to be linguistically uneasy. His wavering over the word terrorism is telling, though in this case unimportant. The real test will come when we learn the motive for the attack."

From Arutz Sheva in Israel comes this appropriate cartoon:

Some background on Chechen Muslims:  RUSSIA: 2004 Beslan School Massacre by Chechen Muslim terrorists
 

Stop bomb violence

Sign in Boston 590 CDN

" “All the people in that Watertown neighborhood, hiding, doors locked,” Wallace began. “How many of them, do you think — and worried that this guy might get into their home, maybe take them hostage — how many of them, do you think, might like a gun? To be able to protect themselves and defend their homes.”
"“That feeds into the gun debate that we’ve had here in Washington,” Wallace asserted. He noted it will be one of the many issues they’ll be discussing on Fox News Sunday."

Photo of the Day – Coexist Bumper Sticker on Car Terrorists CarJacked

Potluck   Irony alert.









From the comments to this post:
"Would someone please explain to me just “Who” these idjits wanted to COEXIST with?"


1 of 2 Muslim Chechen suspects in Boston bombing killed (Updated)

Those who remember the murder of the Breslan children know these people are devoid of any conscience or compassion.

UPDATE: Boston Jihadi bomber's Dad Warns "Hell Will Break Loose" if Son Dies  "More threats from father of Boston jihad bomber. The elder Tsarnaev insisted that "his sons were innocent" -- according to jihadic doctrine, he is. His father refers to his devout son who killed, mutilated and maimed women and children as a "true angel.""

AP "WATERTOWN, Mass. (AP) -- The two suspects in the Boston Marathon bombing killed an MIT police officer and hurled explosives at police in a car chase and gun battle overnight that left one of them dead and his brother on the loose, authorities said Friday as thousands of officers swarmed the streets in a manhunt that all but paralyzed the Boston area."
Killed
....
"The suspects were identified by law enforcement officials and family members as Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev, brothers from a Russian region near Chechnya, which has been plagued by an Islamic insurgency that has carried out deadly bombings. They lived near Boston and had been in the U.S. for about a decade, an uncle said."

Boston Jihadi bomber's Facebook page: Islam and Bombs

Here is the Facebook page  Note the two Islam links under "Noteworthy Pages" and the bomb underneath "send a gift."


Dead bomber 'didn't have a single American friend'   "One of the brothers from Chechnya suspected of bombing the Boston marathon once declared he “didn’t understand” Americans and had no American friends, despite living there for up to ten years."

 Boston Marathon victim Jeff Bauman helped identify bombers  "Jeff Bauman, a man whose legs were blown off during the Boston marathon bombings, and whose image was seen round the world, helped identify Tamerlan Tsarnaev, the dead suspect."
...."It has now emerged that Mr Bauman helped the FBI identify a suspect's photograph, telling the investigators that he looked in the eyes of Tamerlan Tsarnaev as he planted the bomb."

From Mother Jones: Did Boston Bombing Suspect Post Al Qaeda Prophecy on YouTube?   "A user by that name has posted a video to his YouTube playlist extolling an extremist religious prophecy associated with Al Qaeda. It is not clear yet whether the user is the same Tsarnaev as the deceased suspect."

Pictured just feet from the man who 'killed him': Chilling image shows eight-year-old Martin standing beside Boston bomb suspect moments after 'he planted explosive'
"Martin had been waiting to give his father a big hug to congratulate him for finishing the race, but was blown up when the twin blasts ripped through the city centre on Monday."  Read more

Bombing Suspects’ Uncle: They Do Not Deserve To Live On This Earth

Boston Bombing Victim in Iconic Photo Helped Identify Attackers

Bloomberg  "Minutes before the bombs blew up in Boston, Jeff Bauman looked into the eyes of the man who tried to kill him."

Boston Bombing Victim in Iconic Photo Helped Identify Attackers
 
April 18 (Bloomberg) -- Kevin Knierim, a former Federal Bureau of Investigation agent, and Larry Compton, operations manager at Forensic Video Solutions, talk about FBI's release today of pictures and video showing two men suspected in the April 15 terrorist bombing in Boston. They speak with Emily Chang on Bloomberg Television's "Bloomberg West." (Source: Bloomberg)

Just before 3 p.m. on April 15, Bauman was waiting among the crowd for his girlfriend to cross the finish line at the Boston Marathon. A man wearing a cap, sunglasses and a black jacket over a hooded sweatshirt looked at Jeff, 27, and dropped a bag at his feet, his brother, Chris Bauman, said in an interview.

Two and a half minutes later, the bag exploded, tearing Jeff’s legs apart. A picture of him in a wheelchair, bloodied and ashen, was broadcast around the world as he was rushed to Boston Medical Center. He lost both legs below the knee.

“He woke up under so much drugs, asked for a paper and pen and wrote, ‘bag, saw the guy, looked right at me,’” Chris Bauman said yesterday in an interview.

Those words may help crack the mystery of who perpetrated one of the highest-profile acts of terror in the U.S. since the 2001 assault on New York City and the Washington area, one that killed three people and wounded scores.

While still in intensive care, Jeff Bauman gave the FBI a description of the man he saw, his brother said. Bauman’s information helped investigators narrow down whom to look for in hours of video of the attack, he said.

Thursday, April 18, 2013

Biden: 'The President Is Already Lining Up Some Additional Executive Actions' On Guns

 
JoshuaPundit    " Vice President Biden told a number of anti-Second Amendment allies in a conference that President Obama,having failed to get his way is going to be implementing what he wants via yet another executive order:
"Look I know you're going to say that I'm just being an optimist and I'm trying to put a good face on this. But you know I've been around here a long time and we've already done, because of you, some really good things," Biden said. "Number one, the president is already lining up some additional executive actions he's going to be taking later this week."

Earth Day: tips for honoring this special occasion

This comes from the Tunnel Dweller's eldest son, Jeff whose fertile mind dreamed up the name of this blog and whose talent designed the banner at the top.

  • Reduce your carbon footprint by purchasing carbon-free shoes.
  • Drive really fast. The quicker you can get to work, the less time your car will have to burn fuel.
  • Don’t throw away those empty soup cans. Instead, hang them on strings and give your wife a new handmade wind chime for Mother’s Day. Bonus tip: use her tears of disappointment to water your house plants.
  • Before throwing it away, rinse out a broken CFL bulb in the sink so the dangerous chemicals don’t end up in the trash and eventually the landfills.
  • Avoid public transportation. Police and Fire Departments will have to send five or six gas guzzling vehicles to the scene when you get knifed on a subway.
  • Replace your 60 watt bulbs with 15 watt bulbs. It saves energy and most environmentalists look better in dim lighting anyway.
  • To avoid accidentally running your sprinklers all night, when watering the lawn leave your indoor faucets running also as a reminder that the sprinklers are on.
  • Ask the cashier to double-bag your groceries. The last thing the environment needs is a Pine-Sol spill in the Wal-Mart parking lot.
  • Instead of dumping that giant 19” CRT monitor into the land fill, break out the glass and fill it with dirt to make a flower pot for your front porch. It will also give you a chance to meet the members of your local HOA.
  • To save water and electricity, instead of washing dishes use Styrofoam cups and plates. They can be tossed away without using a single drop of water.
  • Get a dog. A dog can lick a plate cleaner than any dishwasher and the dog uses none of our valuable resources to do it.
  • Drive a really big SUV. They create more shade and slow down global warming.
  • Don’t buy flowers. They are grown in greenhouses and we all know the danger of greenhouse gases. At least that can be your story when you forget Valentine’s Day.
  • Flush your toilets only once a day. This will save many gallons of water per day. A lighted candle and having the seat down will take care of 90% of the odor.
  • Don’t buy any Justin Bieber CDs. They will only end up in our landfills.
  • Kill a whale. Each whale eats about 2,500 pounds of beautiful ocean creatures per day. And think of the waste left behind from a 2,500 pound-a-day diet. That giant wasteberg could potentially bring down a ship carrying oil.
  • Paint your SUV green.
  • Wash your hands just once a week. Purell three times a day will take care of the germs, even at the end of the week when it gets pasty while rubbing it in.
  • Don’t buy tuna. Sure most of it is dolphin-safe these days, but none of it is tuna-safe.
  • Don’t put ice in your drinks. Ice harvesting is destroying the polar ice caps.
  • Plant a garden. (does not apply to California where environmentalists will block you from watering said garden)
  • Rent an Ed Begley Jr. movie. There are plenty still available.
  • Give a cow a Beano. Cow flatulence is the number one polluter of the environment. http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/GlobalWarming/story?id=2723201&page=1
  • Leave your lights on all day. The brighter we can make it with lighting, the less of our greatest natural resource; the sun, we will have to use up.
  • Buy a Toyota Prius. Maybe you can find ways other than your car to look cool.
  • Use lots of hairspray. This will increase the hole in the ozone layer, which allows heat to escape out- thereby slowing down global warming. Think of the hole in the ozone as a giant vent on the roof of our earth’s hot attic.
  • Take your own grocery bags to the store. This will reduce trash in our landfills and it makes shoplifting easier.
  • Use a windmill to power your home. They create more energy than you can use and it’s fun to watch spotted owls try to fly through their spinning blades in one piece.
  •  
  • Use powdered water. It doesn’t do much for thirst but you feel better about using it.
  • Forgo the oven all together. Uncooked, many foods taste exactly the same as cooked- just not as hot.
  • Buy a Water Pik. You can tape it to the bottom of your toilet seat and convert your existing toilet into a luxurious bidet. This will eliminate paper going down the drain when you flush your toilet at the end of the day.
  • Boycott Motel 6 until they stop leaving that stupid energy-consuming light on for us.
  • Instead of using tree-killing materials, add that extra room onto your house by using “bricks” made of tightly bundled dirty diapers. Not only will your house be greener but the air inside will be a little greener as well.
  • Turn your heat down to 62°. If you get cold you can put on a toasty-warm mink coat.
  • Let your faucet run while you are brushing your teeth and doing the dishes. This extra water will go down the drain and feed the thirsty creeks and rivers.
  • Become envious. It will make you green.
  • Only buy carpet made of bamboo. And be sure to recycle the splinters you pull out of your feet.
  • Don’t buy products tested on animals. They look ridiculous wearing make-up.
  • Eat greener foods. It’s better for the planet and it will save you money. Many foods get discounted once they turn green.
  • After raking your leaves put them in a plastic garbage bag. Leaves are good for the earth and they will last a lot longer in a plastic bag.
  • To avoid polluting the air, bring your barbeque grill inside before grilling.
  • Make your kids mow the lawn. That way you’ll be burning their excess energy instead of quickly blowing through your own limited resources.
  • Turn the light off when you leave the room. Sure it will anger everyone remaining in the room but you can just say, “Deal with it homies! I’m being green and junk.”
  • Dig up your trees, bushes and lawn. These just drink up our valuable water resources and require maintenance from gas guzzling, smog producing equipment.
  • Wipe out the panda population. They eat way too much of the earth’s precious plant life.
  • Print all of your emails. That way you can read them all any time you want without having to turn on your power-sucking computer.
  • Use the word “green” in your conversations every time you get a chance. You may not actually be helping the environment but you will sound like you are- which ought to keep those tree huggers away.
  • Take environmental advice from your favorite celebrity- even if he did drop out of high school so he could play the part of Gizzard in Animal Road Trip 3.
  • Eat at the Rainforest Café. The grilled baby seal is Deeeee-lish!
  • Only buy dolphin-safe beef.
  • Don’t drink bottled water. Instead pour if from the bottle into a glass.
  • Don’t use your air conditioner. Sure, you may have to apply several extra coats of Chlorofluorocarbon producing spray-on deodorant.
  • Ride the bus to work. Just hope you don’t have to sit next to a guy who, in the name of a greener earth, stopped using his air conditioner.
  • Buy a minivan instead of a maxivan.
  • Use disposable diapers. They don’t require earth-destroying chemicals to clean them and they just go into the landfills anyway. And nobody wants to save the landfills. They’re disgusting!
  • Go to the bathroom outside. It saves water. It feeds the grass. And it gives you a chance to wave to your neighbors.
  • Water is a precious natural resource that needs to be saved. Instead of water, buy ice and let it melt into water. This way, instead of using water you are creating it!
  • Send a designer some money as a thank you for making the world a more beautiful place.
  • Save energy by turning off your TV every time you see Al Gore appear on it.
  • Do your spray painting near a lighted candle. The flame will burn off the harmful VOC’s before they have a chance to rise up into the precious atmosphere.
  • Plant a tree. It creates shade, traps CO2’s and provides oxygen. Plus, it will give you an excuse to go out and buy that 8-horse, gas-powered leaf blower you’ve been wanting.

Amazing Video: Boston Bruins Fans Sing National Anthem In Response To Terror Attack…

Weasel Zippers  First you see a country music tribute that was shown on the big screen over the rink, then the national anthem.


"The Boston Bruins’ game against the Buffalo Sabres on Wednesday night was the first major sporting event in city since the bombings that killed three and injured over 150 people at the Boston Marathon on Monday.
"We all knew it was going to be emotional. We just didn’t realize it was going to be this emotional.
"Here is the National Anthem, sung by the Bruins fans after only a few lines from Rene Rancourt. This is amazing [seen above].

Suspect arrested in Ricin letters attack; another three-name perpetrator

American Thinker  "Well, at least he wasn't a right wing nut, right? Just your garden variety, everyday sort of nut. Anyone on the left who tries to tie this guy to the right will look even more foolish than when they tried to portray Jared Loughner's attack on Gabby Giffords as the result of a bullseye map of targeted congressional races posted by Sarah Palin."

Man Used Same Words on Facebook and Ricin-laced Letters
"The Mississippi man arrested for sending letters laced with Ricin to President Obama and Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MS) included the identical phrase, "to see a wrong and not expose it, is to become a silent partner to its continuance" and were signed, "I am KC and I approve this message," the Clarion Ledger reports."....

Confirmed: Ricin Terrorist Paul Kenneth Curtis Is a Democrat Activist

Paul Kenneth Curtis is crazy – And he’s a Democrat.

But, if the terrorist is not an Islamist, he is most likely a left-wing extremist.

List of Recent Left Wing Terrorists Inspired By Democrat Media Propaganda 

How bad is Obama's gun control debacle?

American Thinker   "There are several reasons why the president's efforts on the gun control issue failed, but perhaps the two biggest were his arrogant assumptions regarding his own powers, and his refusal to acknowledge that the issue was a constitutional one, not a public safety matter."  More...
...."How many calls to Democrats did he make? How many to Republicans? Besides jawboning at photo-ops across the country, just what did the president himself do to get this bill passed?"

President Obama needs an attitude adjustment   "President Obama's reaction was a pitiful performance or the actions of a man who doesn't get the political reality around him. He is also a man who does not respect those who disagree with him."   As someone once put it, this man has ice water in his veins.

With these next posts, Lucianne remarks on Obama's reaction: "The subsequent presidential hissy fit that followed was anything but presidential."

Barack Obama can't pass gun control despite 90 per cent support. Truly, he is a lame-duck president
"Whatever your position on gun control, yesterday’s events are a damning indictment of Obama’s presidency – a flash of style, lots of soaring rhetoric and, when the votes are actually counted, little show for any of it. America has four more years of this lame-duck president telling them that it has let him down."

Say this three times real fast: Blame Bloomberg   "So people look at Bloomberg-land and ask, where is he leading us? Where does he want to go? The way we interpret the decision of the Senate yesterday is that it is saying, “not one more inch in that direction.” Good for the Senate."

Senate gun defeat makes Obama angry--and weaker
"Take Montana's Max Baucus. Please. He voted against Obama's wishes on background checks. Now, Baucus is a notorious political shape-shifter the year before any reelection, as he stops ACLU-ing and starts NRA-ing for the gullible folks back home.
"He now hopes you don't, but you may recall that Baucus was a key architect of ObamaCare, currently crumbling under the weight of widespread state resistance and its own regulatory-bureaucratic-costs."

The TW posted this back in December: Seeking an effective argument FOR gun control
Here, two respected writers discuss the case against taking away individual firearms from Americans. Yes, it is true that if guns did not exist everywhere in this nation those little children in Sandy Hook would be living right now and I only wish that were the case. But it is not and there are violent people out there in their thousands and they are armed; willing and lusting to watch innocent people die in bunches by their hands. How, exactly do you gun-control advocates plan to remove those weapons from their blood-thirsty hands?
I will honestly look for a reasoned argument FOR gun control that contains effective means for keeping us safe from those who carry weapons illegally and are willing to do us harm. Cartoons showing crazed, wild-eyed gun owners don't wash.

As yet, I have seen only politically correct, emotional responses to the issue that have no value other than simply making a politician look as if they are doing something. TD

North Korean Mythologies

Victor Davis Hanson "Much of what is written about the North Korean crisis seems to me little more than fantasy. Let us examine the mythologies."
Below are small excerpts from Hanson's discussions of each item Mr. Hanson lists:
1)      China is a responsible partner in checking North Korea and, of course, does not want war.

 And it reveals the United States as a sort of impotent and neurotic busybody that eventually offers concessions and pays bribes in direct proportion to its serial announcements that it has quit doing just that.

2)      Our regional allies are on the same page. 

Barack Obama has found hundreds of ways to aggravate allied Israel and Great Britain in a way that he would never do to an increasingly Islamist Turkey.

 
3)      The U.S. has clout in the region.

 But fairly or not, after the last four years, bad actors worldwide have sensed a predicable pattern in U.S. foreign policy. Stung by Afghanistan and Iraq, and trapped in multicultural, UN rhetoric, we talk loudly and carry a small stick. Iran learned that the more the U.S. announced deadlines about ceasing nuclear proliferation, the less they had to worry about consequences. (So much so that President Obama apparently worried about saying a single word of encouragement to the million Iranians who hit the streets during the spring 2009 protests).


4)      All would lose equally in a new Korean War.
But do not assume that China is working for peace, that war is just too unprofitable to break out, that South Korea is well-integrated with its allies, that concerned parties listen to the U.S., or that an unthinkable and nihilistic war could neither be won nor lost.

Some Muslims Celebrate Boston Marathon Bombing By Praising Allah and Handing Out Candy

Mr. Conservative
It’s one of the iconic images from 9/11. It’s not the one of the planes crashing into the Twin Towers. It’s not one of the vast plumes of smoke. It’s not the series of pictures showing panicked people jumping into endless space. No, this iconic image is the one that Palestinians dancing in the streets and handing out sweets to celebrate a massive terrorist attack on American soil, one that took 2,996 lives. Well, they’re at it again.


"Showing a savvy, if disgusting, use of social media, Al-Shabaab, the al Qaida-linked, Somali terrorist group tweeted hateful messages such as “Don’t you just hate it when you can’t make it to the finish line” and “Amputations mean that some will never be able to run another marathon again.” Meanwhile, the Shumukh al-Islam Islamist forum quoted bin Laden’s battle cry about destroying America’s security, with people then adding enthusiastic comments:"
...."The Left, of course, believes absolute that, because the attack occurred on April 15 (Tax Day) that it must have originated with the Tea Party.. Time will tell."    Hat tip to Gerald Thomas, formerly of Garibaldi, Oregon

Imagine the effect of this bomb on a three-foot-tall child.   Photo source.