Pretty scary, eh?
Electronic light boards featuring an adult-cartoon character triggered bomb scares around Boston on Wednesday, spurring authorities to close two bridges and a stretch of the Charles River before determining the devices were harmless.
The devices displayed one of the “Mooninites,” outer-space delinquents who make frequent appearances on the cartoon, greeting passersby with a raised middle finger. Nine were reported around Boston on Wednesday, sending police bomb squads scrambling and snarling traffic and mass transit in one of the largest U.S. cities.
The discovery of nine of the devices around metro Boston led state, local and federal authorities to close the Boston University and Longfellow Bridges, and block boat traffic from the Charles River to Boston Harbor.
In addition, the Pentagon said U.S. Northern Command was monitoring the situation from its headquarters in Colorado Springs, Colorado, but said none of its units were sent to assist.
Yes, terrorism requires every possible [fill in the blank]. These ad boards have been in place around the country for two or three weeks from New York and Philadelphia to Los Angeles and San Francisco. I watched the “suspected IED” at Sullivan Station — being blown up by the bomb squad — live and in living color on MSNBC.
Did the Boston Cops overreact?
#27:
You and the media seem to think that they planned this to blow up like this, as if in meetings they decided to create a terrorist scare to get ratings. It is obvious they didn’t mean for it to get out of control, but I guess sh-t happens. So throwing the book at them is not right. I think its funny that MSNBC called them “hoax bombs” today. They are not hoax bombs. They look nothing like bombs. Call them what they are: ads that went wrong.
How safe is the city of Boston when their bomb squad thinks that an LED sign is an explosive? The prosecutor said “it had batteries, it had wires, and it had a circuit”. Well, he’s just effectively classified laptops, ipods, radios, vcrs, tvs, etc in the same category.
Morons.
#12 and #27
“The police would have been negligent not to react as they did”
Fear is no excuse for not responding to a potential threat INTELLIGENTLY! Of course this unusual item should have been checked out, but not in the grossly over reactionary manner in which it was responded to by the Boston authorities.
I hold up the Iraq War as the ultimate example of over reacting to fear without intelligence.
My guess is you think anyone who isn’t exactly like you is a “conservative” (not that you even know what that means, as the current leadership in this country is NOT conservative). The entire city of Boston was gripped in fear and panic. Boston is not a hotbed of conservatism.
Get a new line of attack, this one is getting old and weak.
#33: Not an attack, an observation. There is a difference, except to liberty hating neocon ideologues.
The URL I posted is of these “Mooninite” things being assembled, take a good look at these pics.
This simple device caused all this mess? Or was it the foolish police in Boston? The bomb squad blew one up. Did they even look at it?
Terrorists don’t make the things they blow up, glow or stand out in any way.
The real terrorists are laughing at this.
When will Septemer Eleventh stop being used for an excuse? You have a far greater chance of getting killed getting out of the tub than of being killed by a terrorist attack.
The fact that the BOMB SQUAD looked at these and could not determine that they were harmless should scare you.
#27
Fine… Do it your way…
But just to be clear… We are not citizens, but employees of the United States Of America now.
We are no longer the land of the free.
We are no longer a democracy.
We need to ask a basic question.
Do we want to be Athens or do we want to be Rome?
I don’t think it has to be an either or situation, but if given the option, I’ll take Athens over Rome any day of the week.
The whole episode is so stupid it makes those who defend the police look stupid. A big-city politician railing about corporate greed? Good lord. MSNBC calling these LED ads “hoax bombs”? The good citizens of Boston defending their bomb squads for not knowing how bombs are built?
This can’t possibly be real. Looks to me more like a gigantic official conspiracy to make a sitcom.
And you just demonstrated you don’t know the difference. Are we talking about neocon ideologues or conservatives? There is a difference between the two, one you clearly are incapable of seeing.
Bush = neocon ideologue. NOT a conservative.
[edited: duplicate]
#12, Dusan,
During the war in Bosnia American arm forces caught group of Iranian terrorists preparing bombs in toys… To be left in public places… And do their harm… Actual devices were found.
Is this what Comedian Rush Limbaugh is talking about this week?
Funny how no one else knows about this.
#38, malren,
[comment edited]
Are you a Southern Baptist of the Holy Light in the Grace of His Love or a Southern Baptist of the Holy Light in the Grace of Our Lord’s Love.
What??? No one gives a flying *F*???
Right, the same as your difference between a conservative and a neo-con. If it smells like a neo-con, blathers like a neo-con, and calls itself a Libertarian, then it is some weird form of conservative.
#42
Testify Brother!
Let me guess… No sign permit for the devices, so must be a bomb???
#39: Bush calls himself a Conservative, so does Cheney. They were voted in by conservatives (especially Southern conservatives). Therefore, they represent the conservatives who don’t object to his belief in a unitary presidency.
For those of you who think the “bomb scare” was a joke, I’m like to remind you of 9/11. You are so ignorant in thinking this country is safe. You have no idea what law enforcement goes through everyday to protect this country. In case you didn’t know, there were other devices discovered on that same day that looked nothing like the LED signs. You live in a bubble thinking everything is safe, and hoaxes are funny. Open your eyes. This LED signs stunt just gave terrorist a great idea. Think about it and stop being so ignorant and naive.
#46
Hi Nancy. It’s nice to see the puffed up self righteously indignant brigade has piped in…
1. This bomb scare wasn’t a joke. A joke is funny. This was a clusterfuck led by overzealous authorities who couldn’t tell a Lite-Brite from a bomb and chose to disrupt business and traffic and cost the taxpayers an enourmous sum of money to protect us from works of public art.
2. I am not ignorant to the dangers facing this country. They aren’t new dangers. We’ve faced them for many years. The Clinton administration thwarted these attacks, as did the Bush Sr. and Reagan administrations before him. Bush Jrs team dropped the ball just once and now the danger is in the public mind. But its been over five years now and I’m sick and tired of living in the shadow of these petty and small terrorists. These fractions of men.
3. Any safety the government can offer us is illusionary at best. So let’s quit living like sheep and cowards. Let’s quit betraying the dream of out founding fathers. Let’s quit kicking liberty in the teeth.
To all those who would ask that I comply with overzealous security measures in the name of public safety… Fuck you.
I was born here and I was born free. Liberty mine to enjoy and I am not curtailing it because a small group of Saudi nationals whose leader’s family has links to the Bush administration hijacked planes and flew them into buildings.
I will not piss on the memory of the dead by acting like I am the subject of a theocratic dictatorship or by giving in to fear mongering.
I am an American. And that means I get to live in a place where I can walk when and where I want. Read what I want. Pray where I want. Say what i want. And if I want to live in a place where artists can place lite brites around town, then artists are gonna goddamn well place lite brites around town.
I shall not live an abridged variation of freedom just because you wet your pants at the sight of anything out of the ordinary. Your fear is your problem. If you would allow me to steal some BS propaganda plastered on the back of half your pick-up trucks… These Colors Don’t Run!
If you are gonna put it on your bumper, you damn well better be willing to live it.
The question is why did Boston officials clearly blow this thing out of proportion?
Couldn’t they have figured out from a quick examination of the first one it was just a small lit up sign, not a bomb. How can anybody be this stupid?
Good grief.
Somebody should charge all the police and bomb squads for that bill and for getting the community all worked up over nothing… simply terrible.
PS – I would like one of these things too, I’ll stick it onto our town monument – maybe they’ll call for a total evacuation!!
Well there you have it. I would expect no less from the public servants of the Massachusetts Miracle. Morons in elected office, morons in police uniforms, morons staffing the *bomb squad*. I’m torn between the importance of a legal fund for the two starving artists enabling them to sue the bejeezus out of those Massholes vs. directing such funds to some sorely needed rudimentary education for people unqualified to operate a toilet, much less being entrusted with public safety.
Massachusetts Government is the reason I escaped that God Forsaken state decades ago. The deterioration of rational thought in that abyss occurring since my escape only makes my egress that much sweeter. Carry on Massholes!