BS: Proof we are due for the big one

Subject: BS: Proof we are due for the big one
From: GUEST,Don Last
Date: 01 Feb 07 - 01:59 AM

A bomb scare shut down Boston today.

The man respondsible Edward A Newman was arrested on 26 counts of terrorism and bomb hoaxing. As George Norry, a famous Clear Channel radio show moderator and proponent of creationism said today, " YOU CAN"T FIX STUPIN! This horrible stupid person should have thought more clearly!". Many Boston TV people reporting live continued the anxious speculation after the device was finally identified by saying things like "This may very well be a test of of our seurity!".

WHAT WAS IT?

It seems that the would be terrorist Mr. Newman took a job from Turner Network (CNN & Cartoon Network) to display5 advertisments for a cartoon show UNDERFORCEthat first debuted in 1999. The electronic sign he used, as did other Turner employees did in other cities, is a miniature version of what one sees on the highway that say "EXPECT DELAYS" The letters light up in an amber color. This bomb device however used a "Light Brite" - (registered tradmark) to show the picture of the cartoon character.

The DEVICE is being described as a circuit board with blinking lights. It actually is a black pegboard with a light bulb behind it that allows little colored pegs to be inserted to draw a picture. Now that the situation has been defused and analysed elected Boston officials are outraged that just anyone can post a sign on a public street near a bridge. "We are going to have to crack down on for sale and for rent signs! Some suggested that if homeless people were actually bombs we are going to have to put them all in freedom zones so if one does explode it wil take them out and not us.

Mostly a call for more cameras to be installed on every light pole.
"We can't take these things lightly" said a representative from the website HomelandSecurityUS.com (not afflilated with the real Homeland Security.

Today as events unfolded in Boston Massachusettes it became clear that not one of the thousands of authorities and talking heads who took control of a bomb scare that shut down the highway system of Boston and placed other US cities under alert, had a 6 year old at home.

Bomb scares are not nationaly reported. Here in Maryland we have had the Airport shot down twice and the State Capitol Building shut down due to suspicious devices which all turned out to be abandonned dirty diapers.

It is clear to me that this latest episode, including the arrest of poor Mr. Newman, is proof we are due for the big one. Big Brother.

If I were you I would duct tape large signs on every thing you carry bew it a purse briefcase or cell phone that clearly reads...

"THIS IS NOT A SUSPICIOUS DEVICE"

Subject: RE: BS: Proof we are due for the big one
From: GUEST,Don Last
Date: 01 Feb 07 - 02:01 AM

edit:

The charges have now been reduce to disorderly conduct.

The word STUPIN
should be stupid

Subject: RE: BS: Proof we are due for the big one
From: John O'L
Date: 01 Feb 07 - 03:38 AM

Edward A Newman? Sure it wasn't Alfred E. Newman?

Subject: RE: BS: Proof we are due for the big one
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 01 Feb 07 - 06:43 AM

As I asked in the "Read it in the newspaper" thread where I posted a note on this incident:

"Does this mean the brass-rats who welded the trolley car to the rails in the middle of Massachusetts Avenue a few years back were really terrorists?"

With more than 1,000,000 post High School students within a 5 mile radius of the Charles River bridge where one of the first signs was spotted (after it had been there for a week), if any place in the country knows how to recognize a stupid prank it should be Boston/Cambridge.

The TV cartoon series is described as "a surreal series about a talking milkshake, a box of fries and a meatball." A feature length movie is due out soon. The mayor's just mad 'cause a milkshake "gave him the finger."

John

Subject: RE: BS: Proof we are due for the big one
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 01 Feb 07 - 06:45 AM

OK, so I screwed up the italics. I was giggling.

John

Subject: RE: BS: Proof we are due for the big one
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 01 Feb 07 - 06:50 AM

Pictures of the "deadly devices" are included with the article at:

Suspicious devices close Boston bridges

John

Subject: RE: BS: Proof we are due for the big one
From: GUEST,Dickey
Date: 01 Feb 07 - 09:50 AM

Turner must pay for nitwit stunt
By Boston Herald editorial staff
Thursday, February 1, 2007

OK, so when will the people of Boston see Ted Turner and his nitwit marketing gurus marched into federal court in handcuffs and leg irons?
    Because that's exactly what should happen. Oh sure, he'll offer to write the check - and he damned well ought to be made to write a whopping big one for the resources wasted yesterday over his little guerrilla marketing campaign. But frankly that's not nearly enough to make amends for the chaos caused here.
    The first "device" was spotted during morning rush hour near the Sullivan Station T stop. The incident forced the closing of Interstate 93, causing a traffic tie-up that lasted more than two hours. How do you even put a price on the lost productivity?


    The Red Line was shut down for a time, the Charles River closed to boating, bridges and other roadways including Storrow Drive temporarily closed as the afternoon wore on.
    The only good news was that this test of city and state public safety efforts and coordination worked darned well. And the public responded with admirable calm and patience.
    But there are still a number of unanswered questions for officials at Turner Broadcasting. (And how unfortunate at a time like this that torture has been outlawed. Bet those who sat in traffic this morning would pay good money to see Turner himself water-boarded.)
    Turner's CNN was among the first to report the story of the "device" found and later detonated under I-93. That was around 9 a.m. It wasn't until 5 p.m. that Turner Broadcasting issued a press release fessing up to the whole thing as a marketing ploy. As Police Commissioner Ed Davis said, "This has taken a signficant toll on our resources."
    Someone needs to pay for that.

Subject: RE: BS: Proof we are due for the big one
From: Donuel
Date: 01 Feb 07 - 10:15 AM

Just because I mistake your turd as a device does not mean you have to pay for the bomb squads and the interruption of commerce on all the highways and river of a large city.

Much of the continued hysteria happened after the bomb squad determined the Nite Brite toy is not a device.

Politicians will try to cover their ass but their unreasoned abject fear are the the cause for the entire incident. If the "device was so menacing the other cities like NYC and Seattle in which Nite Brite ads have been displayed for months would have caused a similar hysteria. They did not shut down those cities.

Let the person who had the authority to overblow the situation pay.

Subject: RE: BS: Proof we are due for the big one
From: Donuel
Date: 01 Feb 07 - 10:23 AM

Hey I may not even be a frozen cave man lawyer but even I can see that the guys they have arrested are the most innocent of everyone involved in this experiemnt of cowardice and fear.

Subject: RE: BS: Proof we are due for the big one
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 01 Feb 07 - 10:27 AM

It's Ivins.

My teenage son this morning thought the story was pretty funny. Some of those administrators should have asked their kids what it was about.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Proof we are due for the big one
From: Cluin
Date: 01 Feb 07 - 10:31 AM

Boy those nerds who were scibbling the "All Your Base Are Belong To Us" graffitti around town would really get reamed today.

I guess the terrorists have won.

Subject: RE: BS: Proof we are due for the big one
From: radriano
Date: 01 Feb 07 - 10:44 AM

The phrase "due for the big one" is usually a reference to the next big earthquake.

Subject: RE: BS: Proof we are due for the big one
From: Amos
Date: 01 Feb 07 - 11:07 AM

Total horsepucky to claim that the discovery of these advertising devices forced anything. What forced the closure was the failure on the part of politicos and those on the scene to recognize what it was. It's not someone called n a bomb threat -- these people called in their own bomb threat, jammed up their own city, and are now blaming the wrong target to cover their own buns.


A

Subject: RE: BS: Proof we are due for the big one
From: GUEST,Dickey
Date: 01 Feb 07 - 11:15 AM

According to Ted Turner, "People are beginning to realize the total effect of watching so much sleazy, lousy, violent, exploitive television. It is bad for our society."

Subject: RE: BS: Proof we are due for the big one
From: Donuel
Date: 01 Feb 07 - 11:19 AM

Cluin, Amos, you're both bloody right.

Yes score one for the Bush adminstration.
Here are 4 they didn't score on...
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16893899/

The 2 defendents had their bail reduced from $200,000 to $2,500 this morning and plead innocent. One looks much like Jesus Christ.

The new terrorism law says that the state does not have to prove intent to cause disruption or hysteria but merely have to prove they started the disruption and hysteria as a result of their hoax.

Let me stretch this scenario a bit further. It is plausible that an ambulance in Boston got stuck in stopped traffic yesterday and the heart attack victim later died. Now we can add 2nd degree murder charges on top of a bomb hoax disorderly conduct.

Now to go one inch further, if they are practitioners of witchcraft they should hold the trial in Salem.

Subject: RE: BS: Proof we are due for the big one
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 01 Feb 07 - 11:35 AM

I don't know if we're due for "the big one", but I'm pretty sure that we won't see it coming if we are. Any bomber with half a brain is not going to advertise the presence of his device by putting a Lite-Brite face on it! If it's going to go "BOOM!" it's inside the trunk of that Toyota Corolla parked across the street, not attached to something that blatantly calls attention to itself.

Oh shit! Now I've done it! This message is going to go out on the Internet and idiots are going to read it and the cops are going to be inundated with calls about inconspicuous and, therefore, suspicious Toyotas parked on streets nationwide! Hey, Mr. Homeland Security Officer, it's not my fault if people can't take a joke!

Subject: RE: BS: Proof we are due for the big one
From: GUEST,heric
Date: 01 Feb 07 - 11:55 AM

ooh man I think you just got your name on The List.

Subject: RE: BS: Proof we are due for the big one
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 01 Feb 07 - 12:09 PM

On second thought, if we're going to create a panic that's going to get a lot of innocent people's cars blown up by bomb squads, let's put the nonexistent bombs in KIAs or Suzukis. Toyota Corollas are good cars. No need to have a bunch of 'em go to waste.

Subject: RE: BS: Proof we are due for the big one
From: Donuel
Date: 01 Feb 07 - 03:22 PM

Authorities are saying that terrorists real or percieved must be dealt with.

Subject: RE: BS: Proof we are due for the big one
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 01 Feb 07 - 03:47 PM

It seems remarkably easy to panic the authorities and bring a najor American city grinding to a halt.

No doubt the people who seriously want to bring America grinding to a halt will take note.

Subject: RE: BS: Proof we are due for the big one
From: Cluin
Date: 01 Feb 07 - 03:52 PM

"Authorities are saying that terrorists real or percieved must be dealt with."

And so it begins....

Subject: RE: BS: Proof we are due for the big one
From: Donuel
Date: 01 Feb 07 - 03:53 PM

4 trucks blocking key highways is enough to stop most city transportation for several hours.

"proof we are due for the big one" does not make much sense but none the less this is exactrly what I heard on Clear channel in association with the great Boston scare.

the 2 defendents maade a crucial mistake today. They made of Boston's stupidity by discussing hair length instead of groveling for mercy.

It would have been better to make light of Boston's intelligence or even request a change of venue to Salem.

Subject: RE: BS: Proof we are due for the big one
From: GUEST,282RA
Date: 01 Feb 07 - 04:41 PM

This idiotic, pointless war on terror is turning Americans into a bunch of Chicken Littles. Or maybe just into a bunch of chickens.

Subject: RE: BS: Proof we are due for the big one
From: Ebbie
Date: 01 Feb 07 - 04:58 PM

"It seems remarkably easy to panic the authorities and bring a najor American city grinding to a halt." McGrath

You mean, London did not sit up and take notice?

Subject: RE: BS: Proof we are due for the big one
From: Donuel
Date: 01 Feb 07 - 05:01 PM

Boston chickens cluck with bravado bravery and blame.

Subject: RE: BS: Proof we are due for the big one
From: Donuel
Date: 01 Feb 07 - 05:09 PM

Peace has pointed out to me that the post 9-11 world is a world that has gone through the looking glass. We are inside looking out.

The question is "Who are the masters, the language of fear and loathing or the people who use language.

We as a people are suffering from misplaced anger and an unwillingness to address misunderstandings.

Subject: RE: BS: Proof we are due for the big one
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 01 Feb 07 - 07:17 PM

The bombing atrocities of July 7th caused much less disruption to London than these comic advertising devices appear to have done in Boston.

Subject: RE: BS: Proof we are due for the big one
From: Donuel
Date: 02 Feb 07 - 01:32 PM

The ojective of terrorists is to terrorize people at the greatest economic and human cost possible.

ITS JUST BEGINING TO SINK INTO THE MINDS OF BOSTON AUTHORITIES THAT THEY HAVE MET THE TERRORISTS -

AND IT WAS THEMSELVES !


now the rest of the country might learn the same valuable lesson.

Subject: RE: BS: Proof we are due for the big one
From: Barry Finn
Date: 02 Feb 07 - 04:19 PM

We have brought about our own fear & used that fear to disrupt a nation. What happened yesterday in Boston was just a microcosm of what's happened in the US & around world. Thank you Mr Bush you are one with the enemy & the enemy has won because of you. We are no longer safe from ourselves & we are willing to fall on our own swords to protect ourselves from the ones we had to fear the least from. While those we had to fear the most have gone home to watch us reap what they have sown knowing that we'll suppy all the manure & water & anything else that's needed. We are harvesting our own paranoia.

We would've done well to have laughed off yesterday as a silly misunderstanding.

Barry

Subject: RE: BS: Proof we are due for the big one
From: Little Hawk
Date: 02 Feb 07 - 05:36 PM

More proof we are due for the big one! Chongo has not bought a new tie this year, despite the fact that his old ones all look ratty. He obviously figures "What's the point?"    And that must mean....the END IS NEAR!

Subject: RE: BS: Proof we are due for the big one
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 02 Feb 07 - 05:53 PM

Nah! Chongo finally realized that nobody was noticing whether or not his ties are ratty. The mere fact that he is wearing a tie is enough. If a hundred people saw a chimpanzee walking down the street wearing a tie, at least ninety-nine of them wouldn't be able to tell you afterwards whether or not the tie had a couple of banana stains on it.

Subject: RE: BS: Proof we are due for the big one
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 02 Feb 07 - 06:01 PM

There's a folk story about Jack that seems somehow relevant.

Jack is in a forest, and along comes a bunch of fierce giants. So he hides up a tree.

And when they are sitting down having a meal round their campfire, Jack throws an acorn, first at one and then at another; and they start accusing each other of doing it, and they get to quarrelling and then to fighting.

And when they have finished killing each other, Jack gets down out of the tree, steps over the bodies, and finishes off their supper.

Subject: RE: BS: Proof we are due for the big one
From: SINSULL
Date: 02 Feb 07 - 07:07 PM

The judge (a clip on the news) was not amused at the charges. He asked "Are you telling me that these men are under arrest for a marketing campaign?"

None of the other cities went into red alert. Sounds like overkill to me.

Subject: RE: BS: Proof we are due for the big one
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 02 Feb 07 - 08:05 PM

That press statement: Hair today, gone tomorrow...

I like those guys. Yippie!

Of course, there is the problem that, when officialdom makes a real fool of itself, it's likely to get vengeful rather than admit it and say sorry.

Subject: RE: BS: Proof we are due for the big one
From: Cluin
Date: 04 Feb 07 - 05:24 AM

If Orson Welles was alive and tried broadcasting his little radio play today, he'd be shipped off to Guantanamo.

Subject: RE: BS: Proof we are due for the big one
From: GUEST,Dickey
Date: 04 Feb 07 - 05:37 PM

Atlanta's Cartoon Network Triggers Nationwide Bomb Scare

"....Turner notified them that the devices were part of a promotion at around 5 p.m., Boston officials said....

....The first device to raise alarm in Boston was found by a transit worker at a subway and bus station underneath Interstate 93 on Wednesday morning, leading to the temporary shutdown of the station and the highway.

Later, police said four calls, all around 1 p.m., reported devices at the Boston University Bridge and the Longfellow Bridge, at a Boston street corner and at the Tufts-New England Medical Center.

Two devices, at the Longfellow Bridge and the medical center, however, turned out to be unrelated to the marketing campaign, Police Commissioner Edward Davis said.

The rash of calls around the same time is being investigated, Davis said. When asked if the calls were coordinated as part of the marketing campaign, he said: "There's no indication it came from panicked residents...."

Subject: RE: BS: Proof we are due for the big one
From: GUEST,Dickey
Date: 06 Feb 07 - 12:43 AM

Boston Reaches Settlement in Bomb Scare

New York Times

"BOSTON, Feb. 5 — Turner Broadcasting System and a Manhattan marketing agency have agreed to pay $2 million in restitution and other costs for a Cartoon Network advertising campaign that set off fears of terrorism, the state attorney general, Martha Coakley, said today.

The agency, Interference, Inc., carried out the campaign, which placed electronic advertisements for the show "Aqua Teen Hunger Force" in public places, including a Boston overpass where it was mistaken for a bomb last Wednesday.

The companies will pay $1 million to reimburse federal, state and local agencies for their response to the incident, which led officials to close a highway, bridges, subway stations and part of the Charles River for hours after dozens of the devices, which resemble Lite-Brite toys, were found in Boston, Cambridge and Somerville.

The companies will pay an additional $1 million in "goodwill funds" that will be divided among the agencies for emergency response training and equipment and public outreach...."

Subject: RE: BS: Proof we are due for the big one
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 06 Feb 07 - 01:57 PM

So we now have a legal precedent that esentially says, "When idiots over-react, it's not the idiots' who are at fault, but the source of whatever prompted the over-reaction."

I suppose those of us who drive older cars should be extremely cautious about calling them "bombs" in public, huh?

Subject: RE: BS: Proof we are due for the big one
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 06 Feb 07 - 02:20 PM

And don't call that guitar an "axe" (let alone an "ax", since that implies you are in North America.)

I've always advised anyone travelling with a bouzouki to refer to it as "a kind of guitar) for fear of misunderstanding. And best not say you're "a tourist" or are planning to meet with "other tourists"...

If they blow your head off, you or your heirs are liable.

Subject: RE: BS: Proof we are due for the big one
From: GUEST,Dickey
Date: 06 Feb 07 - 11:08 PM

Turner Broadcasting is primarily a news network. CNN was covering the event.

Why did they wait until 5 PM to tell officials in Boston that it was an advertising campaign?

Subject: RE: BS: Proof we are due for the big one
From: Amos
Date: 07 Feb 07 - 10:20 AM

More importantly, why did anyone think these stupid little LED flash devices were anything scary at all? Mobilizing emergency response forces is not something that should be entrusted to the stupid.

A

Subject: RE: BS: Proof we are due for the big one
From: Donuel
Date: 07 Feb 07 - 11:43 AM

Around here the State Capitol Bld and Washington Nation Airport were shut down due to suspicious dirty diapers being left on the stairs.

THe Boston settlement...
ITs like sueing Pampers ... and winning

Subject: RE: BS: Proof we are due for the big one
From: GUEST,Dickey
Date: 07 Feb 07 - 01:04 PM

The items cause alarm because of the fact that they had batteries, taped together, hanging down on wires and they were placed on beams under bridges. Add to that the fact that the 9/11 attacks came from Boston.

Amos: Do you believe that there is no terrorist threat in the US?

Yes or no?

Do you believe it is right for government officials, responsible for the safety of the public to err on the side of safety?

Yes or no?

I believe there is a terrorist threat un the US.

I beleive it is right for public official to err on the side of saftey.

I believe that the actions of Turner Broadcasting were the results of corporate greed and they should have known better than to place things with batteries hanging from wires under bridges.

I beleive that if I were placing the "signs" I would have wondered if they might not cause a bomb scare and that would have outweighed my profit motive.

Subject: RE: BS: Proof we are due for the big one
From: Amos
Date: 07 Feb 07 - 01:25 PM

I believe that fear breeds stupidity. I have proof.


A

Subject: RE: BS: Proof we are due for the big one
From: Cluin
Date: 07 Feb 07 - 01:36 PM

Again, the terrorists have won.

Subject: RE: BS: Proof we are due for the big one
From: Donuel
Date: 07 Feb 07 - 01:40 PM

Dick

Yeah its not the device at fault
its the batteries.

It should have been solar powered.

but I believe you have missed the BIG point.

Subject: RE: BS: Proof we are due for the big one
From: JeremyC
Date: 07 Feb 07 - 01:51 PM

Amos, is the proof you speak of in the post immediately above you, because I think it is.

Subject: RE: BS: Proof we are due for the big one
From: Donuel
Date: 07 Feb 07 - 02:20 PM

"You are correct sir"

Ed McMann

Subject: RE: BS: Proof we are due for the big one
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 07 Feb 07 - 09:27 PM

Just out of curiosity, can anyone cite a genuine instance of a member of the general public reporting a suspicious object that actually turned out to be a bomb?

Seems to me that, as I said above, any bomber worth a shit is not going to plant a bomb that looks like a bomb. A bomb is going to be inside a discarded beer can, not out in the open with flashing lights saying "Look at me! Look at me!"

Subject: RE: BS: Proof we are due for the big one
From: GUEST,Dickey
Date: 10 Feb 07 - 12:15 AM

Good point. We should report beer cans as suspicious devices.

Amos: Do you believe that there is no terrorist threat in the US?

Yes or no? If you can't say no then then you must beleive there is a terrorist threat in America.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/6420AP_WA_Suspicious_Devices.html

Turner Broadcasting says it's notifying police of all the locations. The company apologizes and regrets the devices were mistaken as dangerous in Boston.