The Height of Stupidity in America

I'm increasingly embarrassed to live in this country, and therefore be associated by region and nationality with these people. Let's look at a few things logically, for a change...

1) The Boston Bomb Scare: First off, this marketing campaign was executed in 11 cities in the US. Only 1 city turned it into an overhyped piece of BS. I'm sorry, but would you really think a cartoon character flipping the bird would be a bomb?!? Are the people in Boston so far out of touch with reality that they're no aware of advertising campaigns? This was not a bomb scare. It was a simple case of government officials grossly overreacting. And now they want Turner to pay for the whole ordeal?!? I already didn't like Boston as a city -- but this just reinforces that notion. Maybe it's time we cede Boston back to the British -- because they're not doing this country any good today. Idgits.

But let's get to brass tacks on this. Here's the biggest problem. We have a bunch of obviously incompetent "security" professionals in Boston who are in incapable of distinguishing between real and false threats. They couldn't do it in a reasonable period of time. They couldn't even apparently do it on their own. To make matters worse, their response to a perceived threat was such an extreme knee-jerk reaction that it shutdown the city and paralyzed the population with fear. This is the height of irresponsibility and wonderfully demonstrates the worst aspects of 9/11 fallout.

In this day and age, we need calm, rational leaders. We do not need fear mongers, name-callers, war mongers, inciters of violence, paranoia, panic, or hatred. The American people need to take a collective deep breath, step back, and then begin throwing these morons out of office, out of leadership positions, out of society. We need to collectively reject the gross paranoia that has set in since 9/11 about terrorism, airport security, port security, and border security. We need to stop flailing about like headless chickens. It's time to take a look at real issues and propose real, competent, intelligent, thoughtful solutions. It's time to tell the media and the politicians that "enough is enough!".

2) How Not to Compliment: It angers me to no end that old white guys cannot even compliment young black men today without having their every last word ripped and spun to pieces. Obama, who I happen to think is a strong candidate, is a clean-cut, nice looking guy. Ok, so Biden accidentally said "clean" instead of "clean-cut" (or "fresh"), but come on folks. Who's actually up in arms about this?!? Is this yet another case of the media creating something out of nothing? I hope the average citizen is not buying any of this, because it's ludicrous. It's certainly also being overhyped, exactly like Boston's response to a gorilla marketing campaign.

MESSAGE TO THE U.S.: STOP LISTENING TO THE MEDIA. THEY HAVE A VESTED INTEREST IN MESSING WITH YOURS HEADS. THEY ARE NOT HERE TO HELP, INFORM, OR PROTECT YOU. YOU WILL KNOW A REAL THREAT WHEN YOU SEE IT. YOU WILL KNOW A REAL INSULT WHEN YOU SEE IT (see former US Senator George Allen). DO NOT LISTEN TO ALL THE "NATIONAL SECURITY" HYPE. IT'S 99% HOGWASH AND SHOULD BE DISREGARDED.

UPDATED: According to CNN.com:

Turner said the devices have been in place for two or three weeks in Boston; New York City; Los Angeles, California; Chicago, Illinois; Atlanta, Georgia; Seattle, Washington; Portland, Oregon; Austin, Texas; San Francisco, California; and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

However, only in Boston did the light boards create such a furor. In Seattle and several suburbs, the signs were removed without fuss, according to The Associated Press.

See, folks, this is what I'm talking about. 10 cities total had these little things in place. Only Boston got bent out of shape about them. And it happened 2-3 weeks after they were put in place! All this tripe about arresting the two guys in Boston and that it was some bomb hoax is complete poppycock. The only crime here is the sheer idiocy of leaders, policians, and response managers in Boston.

Here's my favorite quote:

"It had a very sinister appearance," Coakley told reporters. "It had a battery behind it, and wires."

So, just to get this right. If you have a device with a battery and wires, and if it looks "sinister," then it's a bomb threat that requires shutting down an entire city. If anybody has seen a picture of these things, they would immediately notice that the boards appear to be well-exposed and that it would take very little intelligence at all to determine if there was anything truly "sinister" about them. Praytell, where was the explosive charge allegedly hidden in these things?

The good news here is that the Mass. law on hoaxes apparently has an intent clause. The 2 sacrificial lambs arrested should be good to go. I see that Boston is trying to stick Turner with the bill, even though it's now been clearly stated that this was run by an ad agency. My guess is this gets quietly resolved behind closed doors over the next couple weeks.

Note to self: do not gift LiteBrite to friends living in Boston.