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Cartoon Network CEO Resigns Over Aqua Teen Scare
DesertBlade writes "Jim Samples, CEO of Cartoon Network, has resigned over the bomb scare prompted by the Aqua Teen marketing campaign. Turner (CN's parent company) ended up paying over 2 million in restitution to the city of Boston, and a man with a thirteen year record at the company has lost his job. Though many people have been citing this as 'the ultimate successful advertising campaign', there have obviously been real consequences from the incident." By virtue of the consequences of the campaign, was this now officially a bad idea? Or is your opinion that this is all far too much knee-jerking? Have your say in the comments.
Sorry, but your post mentioned the buck at the top of the list and September 11th, and I can't help but draw any subtle lines between the head of the corp and the head of the state...
Anyways, I'm glad he took the fall for it, as he most likely has savings as opposed to the young guys who actually put up signs. Another sacrifice is made to the new State of paranoia.
Error 407 - No creative sig found
Clearly it was an overreaction and someone in Boston should have resigned/been fired instead. See here http://www.dailynews.com/ci_5180780 (via http://www.schneier.com/) for a way to dispose of bombs in a way without shutting down a major metropolitan area.
"What kind of music do pirates listen to?" -Paul Maud'dib
"Yeeeaaarrrrr n' Bee!!" -Stilgar, Leader of Sietch Tabr
Not only Boston overreacting, but now the network itself? Where are the people willing to stand up for sanity? It's truly a sad day...
They don't -have- to assume anything. It's not like 9/11 was the kick-off party, and now all the terrorism is going to stream in.
We're spewing hippopotamus repellent and then claiming victory because there are no hippos. All 9/11 opened the door for was paranoia and jingoism.
Jim Samples, CEO of Cartoon Network, has resigned over the bomb scare prompted by the Aqua Teen marketing campaign.
Resigning from your job is easy. Getting a 10-speed, filling it with illegal substances and sending it across the border is not.
The theory of relativity doesn't work right in Arkansas.
That's right kids - we're one step away from failing to have the ability to sort by color and shape. How did it come to pass that Lite Brites shut down the city of Boston?
The government has been very successful in scaring the public into thinking that the terrorism threat is real. The fact is, more people have died from lightning strikes in the past fifty years than from terrorist acts on American soil. This is fueled by the new status of new media as entertainment rather than information, which creates a sea of idiotic speculation before any facts are actually discovered. Witness the media trial of the man accused of Jon Benet's murder, or any of the number of bomb scares that have turned out to be simple security breaches.
There's no simple solution, but I think we as a society need to admit first that we have a problem.
As the t-shirt says...
Aqua Teen Hunger Force is the Bomb
Cartoon Network stand up to the stupid city of Boston! They are at fault.
Bringing liberty to the masses. - http://freetalklive.com/
You make the assumption that a full-scale response is needed in this kind of situation. Anyone with half a brain (which apparently does not include the Boston PD) would have immediately known that those objects were not bombs. The problem with it all is that if the government keeps responding in this manner, the common citizen will ignore warnings when the real thing happens.
At least the city of Boston found the weapons of mass deception.
The Boston media screwed up. The Boston Officials Screwed up. The two schmoes who put the signs up will pay for that as they're charged with everything from littering to having bad haircuts (real charge: making city officials look foolish). Big media tosses a bit of pocket change around to make sure things don't get any higher than the two dudes already arrested. And the exec at the cartoon network is fired because the cost of the advertising campaign exceeded the value of the show. So while the Boston Media and Officials try to convince themselves that two million dollars proves they were right, the rest of the country has pretty much concluded that Boston is one supremely messed up city.
Did I miss anything?
To me, the fact that he took the fall for it is an ironic sign of good leadership. Not many at the top would allow themselves to be taken out over an incident like this. It probably means that he is a good leader, and understands responsiblity, and stepped up to take the heat.
The irony is that this is just the sort of person you actually want at the top, and now he is gone.
Try to hack my 31337 firewall!
It's everyone's fault really. The media and government hype terrorism for certain political forces to establish a "comfort zone" in the middle east by trying to scare the crap out of Americans. Then the same people who own the media companies are trying anything to make money like any other big businesses and it's no secret that bad publicity is somehow good publicity because people are still talking about it versus not.
- John
http://www.jabcreations.com/
Seriously folks, I understand that people are still all sorts of freaked out over a terrorist attack which happened in the US over 5 years ago, but it is time to chill out and not be so uptight about anything which may be suspicious.
b g?articleid=180349), and have been focusing entirely on a silly marketing stunt which didn't hurt anyone. Honestly people, do most terrorists even know where Boston is? It isn't exactly the biggest city in the US, nor does it have any huge symbols of American Imperialism such as the World Trade Center. It has a couple of nice universities, but do you thing the terrorists care at all about those?
These 38 lighted signs which were mistaken for bombs, never should have made the news. They did not look like bombs in any way shape or form, and had been in place for a considerable amount of time before people started going apeshit over them. People seem to fail to mention the "real" fake bombs which were planted in Boston on the same day (http://news.bostonherald.com/localRegional/view.
Security will never come through "preparedness" against an enemy which doesn't care whether it lives or dies. If terrorists/crazy dictators/serial killers/thugs want to kill you badly enough, they probably will. The only way we will ever be secure is to make people not want to harm us
09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0 is the magic number.
It's because it's Boston, and that's the only reason why this happened. Don't forget, what part did Boston play in 9/11? Boston's the city whose security was so fucked up, they let the terrorists onto the planes. Boston is the city that caused 9/11. Not surprisingly, after being the primary cause of the worst terrorist attack on United States soil, Boston is a little jumpy about terrorism.
But other than causing 9/11, what else is Boston known for?
Well, there's always wasting billions of federal tax dollars to bury a highway to improve the city skyline, which lead to
crushing a woman when three-ton ceiling tiles that had been glued to the ceiling fell.
Apparently Boston wasted billions of federal dollars, only to glue three-ton concrete ceiling tiles to their tunnel.
If you want to look at government waste and horrible mismanagement, look no further than Boston. The only reason this happened is because Boston is run by incompetent idiots. The part 9/11 had with this is that 9/11 is Boston's most well known failure, one that they're not eager to repeat.
..."the terrorists have won".
Doesn't it make you feel good to know that our freedoms are protected by politicans, lawyers and journalists.
Sony could put up a PSP campaign saying "white is right"...
But these guys are getting fined and losing jobs over something that was truly harmless?
Don't thank Boston, thank the retards who run it. I just live there.
If real attacks come, they'll be like Madrid. You won't know it until it happens, it'll be in a crowded place, during rushhour, and there won't be any ambiguity or warning. Boom, and it's done, and lots of people will be dead. And there's little chance of stopping it. That's life, and it fucking sucks, but here's what I can tell you for sure:
They won't be leaving fucking light-brites at the side of the road.
Some things just aren't plausible.
occultae nullus est respectus musicae - originally a Greek proverb
(Meanwhile, in the parallel universe where these things actually were bombs)
COME ON! It's a huge pile of electronics with a display that's giving you the finger! What retard would possibly not know it's a bomb?
Toronto-area transit rider? Rate your ride.
On the plus side, terrorists now have an easy way to shut down a city, just for the price of a few batteries and wires.
Praise Allah, the batteries were not even connected and the infidels shrieked as if they were set afire with fuel.
"In this post-9/11 world, the advertising agency should've:
1) made sure they had permission from the landowners before they placed their ads
2) given the police a heads-up along with photos
3) given the major media a "this is not a story but people may call you about it" heads-up, since people tend to call papers when they see things like bombs"
In the post 911 world, terrorist groups would start off small, and make things like this commonplace, so no one would think about them. Pull your head out of your ***.
Plastic devices with flashing lights or timing devices? Tell me you DID not say that.
"Hey Mr. Mayor, we have this cool idea to advertise our crap electroniclally, strapped to
public property...pay no attention to the man behind the curtain..." ONLY an idiot would
espouse such drivel.
... then I would have just blamed the whole thing on Meatwad. Shake gets away with that kind of crap all the time.
If we took that attitude, next thing you know, you'd be getting shredded by a Hello Kitty full of C4 and nails.
I was never suspicious of a Hello Kitty doll, but now that I've chosen to be suspicious of it, I'm doing my part! In fact, cars explode on the streets of Iraq every day, so now I call 911 everytime I see a parked car. Yet, for some reason, I'm being blamed with clogging the system full of rhetoric and empty false alarms. I just don't get it. Cars explode way more often than Hello Kitty dolls, but my vigilent attitude is not being appreciated!
I love Americans, truely, but this is one particular case wher I am absolutely thrilled that I live in a country in which you can't score political points for making a mountain out of a mole hill. Its getting to the point where you can make yourself look good by selling creative, tangential, and obtuse terrorist threats rather than workmanlike every day global occurances that kill and maim dozens to hundreds of people at a time.
You really have to give the 9/11 atrocity commiters some credit. Crash a few planes, and inspire scenarios of exploding C4-laden Hello Kitty dolls. I mean what the fuck, even domestic bombers know that letters, pipes, and cars is really all you need to be successful. If you want to kill lots of people, creativity is the domain of comic books, not reality.
"Old man yells at systemd"
In this post-9/11 world...
In a post-Hitler world, should we allow just any idiot with a radical idea to speak freely?
Caveat Emptor is not a business model.
I think this says it best... http://bostonbombsquadtraining.ytmnd.com/
Its quite obvious that the high-strung nut-jobs in Boston over-reacted. The EXACT SAME ads were in Atlanta for a week before they were installed in Boston and on the very first night in Boston people were crying that it was 9/11 times a million!!! They didn't even bother taking the ads in Atlanta down until a couple of days after everybody freaked out in Boston and still not a single person thought they were a bomb.
... and in the DRM, bind them.
Uh, no.
c e#Boston_advertising_bomb_scare
This exact same public advertising campaign took place in nine other cities with enough brain cells to force a fart out of their asses, and not rampantly overreact to OMG!!!! PINK PONIES FLIPPIN' ME THE BOMB PACK BIRD!!1111 In fact, they had enough brains not to react at all.
Source:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aqua_Teen_Hunger_For
The Boston PD and its authorities are Proof #1 of Einstein's theory that "two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the the universe."
What terrorist would leave a bomb decorated with a scaled-up 32x32 pixel motif lit up in bright blue LEDs?
Osama Bin LightBright
On top of this, Forbes is reporting that this whole sorry episode didn't even help raise the number of people who watch the show. The good news is that the ratings haven't gone down either.
I came here for a good argument
Yes, I forgot to say that my opinion on the situation was limited to the known universe. Thanks for catching that for me, though. In that parallel universe, your post might have had a point.
Bullshit. He was probably forced to resign because someone else at the top was pissed about a $2 million tab from the city of Boston. "Allowed" to be taken out -- my ass.
I know you can't see this, but I'm doing this harder than I've ever done it before.
It's a very dark ride.
I, for one, find it incredibly disturbing that authorities could mistake this for a bomb. That, to me, shows that they are ill-prepared. I've heard many times how they "still had to take it seriously" but they didn't. Anyone *competent* should've known several reasons why it wasn't a bomb:
* No source of shrapnel, that plus the odd placing makes them incredibly ineffective as anti-personnel weapons.
* They're WAY too small to cause structural damage, even if the batteries were supposed to be shaped charges. I'm sorry, but I don't see an explosive that size as being able to even scratch a bridge like that.
* No payload -- batteries don't explode (Sony's catch on fire, at most) and even if they did, and even if they were shaped charges, they're oriented completely wrong on the device, so I don't see how they were supposed to cause anti-personnel damage.
* You do NOT call attention to a device like that with blinking lights. SOME of us would know it was a bomb even if it had a cartoon on it and others would assume it was one anyhow. Now, it's true that the IRA used to do something somewhat similar, but what they did was have a small explosion to attract rescue workers & such, then a larger one to kill them. You don't attract people with blinking lights, you'd never be able to properly time the explosion unless you were standing there, waiting to get caught.
So what have we learned here? Hopefully that a terrorist's purpose is to cause terror.
Every time you panic, the terrorists win.
From the Seattle PI article:
What changed under Obama? Nothing Good
> COME ON! It's a huge pile of electronics with a display that's giving you the finger! What retard would possibly not know it's a bomb?
:] Well, a competent bomb squad, like those found in all the other cities...
The kind who knows that real bombs have payloads. The kind that knows that a device that small isn't going to cause structural damage to something like a bridge even if it was 100% high explosive. The kind who knows that they were very, very poorly placed as anti-personnel devices, called unnecessary attention to themselves, and probably wouldn't have been able to kill anyone at all, unless that person had been standing right next to them.
You know, the kind of person who might be found on a bomb squad
--
Every time you panic, the terrorists win.
I have to agree wholeheartedly that if he was not forced to resign that he indeed took responsibility. My problem is that he took responsibility for the morons who thought that an LED cartoon character giving the finger could be a bomb. This ad campaign took place in other cities and Boston was the only one react...overreact in this way.
Having previously worked in DC at 1700 Pennsylvania Avenue I've seen firsthand how the "authorities" love to play with their toys. "Look, there's a small duffel bag sitting on that newspaper box...it might be a bomb. Let's blow it up because we have the means and it's fun. Crap, it was just someone's work out clothes. Well, at least we got to close down the street, run our lights and sirens, blow something up, and get on TV".
I reserve the right to think for myself. Others' opinions are optional. Puppy on lap = typos...not illiteracy.
And it has some choice quotes, like this one:There, proof that both residents and officials of the Pacific Northwest are smarter/less paranoid the residents/officials of Boston.
What changed under Obama? Nothing Good
That's a rather benign interpretation. Add a dash of cynicism, a sprinkling of conspiracy theroism and a few tinfoil hats as a garnish and you could easily conclude that the excessive terrorism threats are a way to scare populations into submitting to government control. I think High Chancellor Suttler said it best in the movie V for Vendetta:
"What we need right now is a clear message to the people of this country. This message must be read in every newspaper, heard on every radio, seen on every television. This message must resound throughout the entire Interlink. I want this country to realize that we stand on the edge of oblivion. I want every man woman and child to understand how close we are to chaos! I want everyone to remember why they need us!"
Everyone should see that movie, and then take a good, hard look around them.
I hate printers.
Most of the comments here are of the mindset that the reaction was absolutely justified - that they should have seen it coming - that anyone in their right mind would have assumed those were bombs.
Its amazing to me how this state of paranoia and fear has not only become so widespread, but ACCEPTED even - as if everything really changed on 9/11. Here's a fact for you: NOTHING CHANGED AFTER 9/11. The ONLY thing that is different in America is the amount of surveillance we are being subjected to and the number of rights that are being eroded before our eyes.
More people die every year from peanut allergies or swimming pool accidents than terrorism. Terrorism IS NOT A BIG THREAT. Beyond that, it is IMPOSSIBLE to completely stop. The war on terror is a FARCE and its SOLE PURPOSE is to subjugate a nation enslaved by comfort and convenience - with their consent.
The people who should have to pay for this are the idiots who overreacted. Did you see those signs? THEY LOOKED LIKE LITE-BRITES and had a CARTOON ALIEN FLIPPING THE BIRD. What muslim extremist would use that as their terrifying logo of doom?!?!
HOW THE HELL DID YOU PEOPLE GET THIS WAY!? AREN'T YOU LOOKING AT THE WORLD AROUND YOU?! Don't you see how absofuckinglutely ridiculous it is to consider the reaction to these HARMLESS and FUNNY signs in any way justifiable?
"Those who would sacrifice liberty for security deserve neither" - Thomas Jefferson
Chew on that.
Why does anyone have to take a fall for it? It was idiocy by government officials that was the problem.
ResidntGeek
"That's a rather benign interpretation. Add a dash of cynicism, a sprinkling of conspiracy theroism and a few tinfoil hats as a garnish and you could easily conclude that the excessive terrorism threats are a way to scare populations into submitting to government control."
Well, I saw a benign interpretation for benign event. It's not like it was an unknown, bomb looking device, that had a countdown running. While I might expect a bomb to be disguised, I certainly wouldn't expect it be disguised as a cartoon figure that will DRAW attention. I also think any terrorists will choose a less attention drawing method. I certainly would. Hell, I'd stuff a bicycle frame with explosives and shrapnel and then park and lock it up in the most densely populated pedestrian traffic area I could find. Having said that, I certainly can't argue that the powers that be in the US state and federal governments might want extreme paranoia as a means for further control of the populace...ouch, I think you might have made my tinfoil hat a little tighter.
I reserve the right to think for myself. Others' opinions are optional. Puppy on lap = typos...not illiteracy.
Mod parent up.
I live in Boston. The city screwed up, badly. Pretty much everyone I know thinks city officials made us look completely ridiculous. This was not a case of reasonable precautions, even, as they say, in a post-9/11 world.
All these people keep saying "But it could have been a bomb, you don't know!" or "Well if it had been a bomb, you'd be glad they responded the way they did!"
No. I agree wholeheartedly with the parent here. It couldn't have been a bomb. Literally, physically, something that looks like those devices could not possibly be an explosive device of any serious power, nothing that poses any danger to any structure or even any human who wasn't essentially holding them in his hands.
An ordinary person off the street might not know this. That's fine. But a bomb squad member damn well better know this, and it terrifies me that the bomb squad members in our city apparently don't. What the hell are they going to do if there is a real bomb, and they have to try and disable it without blowing up anything important? If they don't even have the basic grasp required to know there should be a payload, what exactly do they know about the construction of bombs? Seriously, I'm not nearly as bothered by the possibility of some terrorists planting a bomb as I am knowing that if there is a bomb, our trained professionals whose job it is to handle that sort of thing won't be able to do anything about it, even if they know where the bomb is and have plenty of extra time. What the hell is the bomb squad for?
I am the man with no sig!
He should not have resigned. He should have taken those responsible for this gross overreaction to task by produced a show about how stupid the response was. Using industry/military experts in bomb making, demolition, target selection and mission execution.
And it goes with out saying that he would not use the talking head pseudo terrorist experts, read political appointees, that spouted as fact that is possible to successfully get the components of on and to mix binary explosives on a moving plane loaded with real people and a flight crew who would notice that one washroom was never available not to mention the thermos cases the components would have to be brought on the plane in.
www.thebostonbomb.com
Undetectable Steganography? Yep, there's an app fo
The occasionally Hello Kitty full of C4 and nails is an acceptable price to pay for living in a free and funny society.
What exactly are cops supposed to look for when looking for bombs? The nature of bombs is that they are fairly easy to hide. Put them inside a computer, a cardboard box, a large melon, hello kitty dolls, inside a car, under your clothes, whatever. To try to find bombs based on what they look like is therefore largely futile and a waste of everyone's time. But on the other side, the benefits of allowing people to put crazy shit in random places is huge. In order for society to be able to grow and flourish, people (and yes, soulless entertainment corporations) need to be free to be as weird as they want as long as they aren't being explicitly harmful. Perhaps Cartoon Network could have known better, but in that this was a campaign that went across many cities and Boston only reacted the way they did after a few weeks of the ads being out, I think it's reasonable to say that the risk of this happening was fairly low, and thus that Cartoon Network can't be held too responsible for bad luck.
Him taking the fall is understandable and probably a good PR move, but it should be pointed out that his position at the top is debatable. Cartoon Network is wholly owned by Turner Broadcasting, which in turn is wholly owned by Time Warner. He has plenty of bosses.
"Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity." -- Hanlon's Razor
The irony is that this is just the sort of person you actually want at the top, and now he is gone.
Exactly, the point is not to "take one for the team", the point is to stand up and fight until the end.
Patton said it best:
"The object of war is not to die for ones country, its to make the other poor bastard die for his"
This isn't just applicable to war. It's also a lesson about life. What's better than taking the heat for someone else? Fixing the broken system and making the world a better place.
Quitting isn't always the best solution.
Life is too short to proofread.
I think you might be too harsh on the bomb squad here. While i don't have an attribution, one of the articles in the middle of that day on cnn had a quote from a random citizen who said something like "Well, earlier I saw on TV a bomb squad guy holding it in his bare hands and just walking along with [the device] so I knew it couldn't be TOO bad ".
What the actual bomb squad guys thought / knew and what the managers and politicians decided to do with the information, those are different things.
Anybody who's ever been stuck in traffic can understand the knee-jerk "those bozos should pay" response.
But anybody who cares about national security and terrorism should be sobered by what happened in this case: an utter failure of threat assessment. Our ability to survive terrorism is not just reliant on the ability to detect and respond to threats: it's crucial to be able to detect the lack of threats and not respond to them.
What Boston demonstrated is that they are ripe for terrorism. After all, terrorism is about creating terror, not about inflicting actual damage. Boston showed you can terrorize them with some children's toys and no explosives at all.
Of course, the knee-jerk conservative reaction will also include the phrase "abundance of caution" and "we can't take any chances". The problem is if you have an abundance of caution and can't take any chances, then a real terrorist action can have you dancing all over the place trying to respond to decoy threats and missing the real action.
Correctly assessing situations that are not threatening is just as important to security as correctly assessing situations that are.
This reminds me of my time spent in Iraq in 2005. So you drive out in humvees, leaving the relative safety of a base surrounded by perimiter guards that only gets rocket and mortar attacks a few times a week. There you are, just 3-4 gun trucks, 9-15 guys, practically alone in the Sunni Triangle. You pass by blown up guard rails, craters in the side of the road 4-5 feet across, remnants of car bombs.
/should/ be.
Yet, even then, after many explosions targeting us, when we saw a pile of rocks on the side of the road, we'd still have the sense to know it was just a pile of rocks. Hell, we'd go kick it and see. EOD took time to respond. And they're needed at real bomb sites, not the fake or imagined ones.
Our platoon had a nearly 100% rate of not calling out EOD for non-bombs. And the only bomb training we got before hand was the old plastic utensil land mine detector course.
This shit in Boston is just crazy. My security image below is 'stoned', exactly what the Boston officials must be. Or maybe they
I think this quote, by the Attorney General of the State of Massachusetts, Martha Coakley, sums up the overreaction and the unwillingness to look at the situation rationally:
(My source for that quote is a Boston Globe article.)
Oooooooh! Batteries and wires!! Run away!
My feeling is this: if I lived in the state, I'd damn well make sure I stayed away from Radio Shack, because I'm likely to get caught in the crossfire when someone buys a few electronics components and the SWAT team comes in to take out the "terrorist" with a storm of bullets. Have these people never, ever seen a homemade electronics project before!? For God's sake, MIT is located in their state!
That's the part about this that pisses me off the most. Okay, sure, the Lite-Brights are out of the ordinary (at least for being hung up about the city). I can even see how such a device could be seen as a threat to some self important official with a stick up his ass, and would not entirely blame them for doing something about it. The fact that they went completely over the top with this and started trying to prosecute people is not understandable. Why is it so hard for them to admit they were wrong? If they had just said "Oops, yeah, these things are pretty harmless. We apologize for the scare." there would be no problems and no media circus.
I don't quite remember where they were all placed but even if they were placed around an airport, I still personally think it's an overreaction simply on technical grounds. Given the size of the devices, they would have to be attached to a plane or be within several dozen feet to cause any noteworthy damage, even if they were pure C4. Since none of them were placed on airport grounds, they posed absolutely no threat to aircraft.
Should one be jailed and fined millions of dollars for plugging in an alarm clock at a public place? Littering, perhaps. Vandelism? Probably not.
The truth is that a car parked underneath a bridge is a much more realistic and simple solution for a terrorist. However, the city isn't calling out the bomb squad for every car parked under a bridge. In fact, I cannot think of more than one case that I've heard about where such an event has happened. I wonder why this hasn't happened more?
Really, the line should be drawn somewhere, and I think that line is 'common sense'. I think that this is a case of misunderstandings. The artists were too naive, they underestimated the stupidity of other people. The city reacted based on THEIR OWN concerns. This was not a hoax, the devices were not bombs, they weren't intended to look like bombs. Could some people mistake them as bombs? Apparently. However, I do not believe that one should be legally responsible for the mistaken actions and responses of another. The artists did break some laws, but nothing more than vandelism, trespassing, or littering.
Is this the result of the last presidental elections when Kerry was called a 'flip-flopper'? You know, sometimes people make mistakes. Maybe the city of Boston should realize that and consider changing their stance. Sometimes it is better to admit mistakes and correct one's actions, rather than carry a bad idea forward just because you're afraid of a little change. For that matter, I'd rather have a "flip flopper" as president than one that can't admit that they were mistaken in their judgements and decisions, and continues to drive our country forward like a Lemming off a cliff.
The biggest idiocy perpetrated in this incident was by the people who didn't think far enough ahead to anticipate that this was going to happen
i think the fact that numerous signs posted in other cities caused no disruption or panic is a sure sign that boston's reaction was NOT the correct ex-ante expectation of what would happen.
Q. Is it forseeable that pouring boiling water on a person will cause burns.
A. Yes
Q. Is it forseeable that pouring boiling water on a person will cause an earthquake in Uganda.
A. No.
Q. Is it forseeable that a lite-brite advertisement placed w/o permission will get taken down and a fine sent to the party who put it up w/o permission?
A. Yes
Q. Is it forseeable that a lite-brite advertisement placed w/o permission will cause an entire city to "duck and cover".
A. No
What changed under Obama? Nothing Good
We live in a culture that has become so paranoid that we've traded freedom for "security."
Maybe it was, indeed, a bone-head idea to "tag" public spaces, but the government and media need to quit making stories out of nothing. There's plenty of stupidity to go around on this one.
The clue phone is ringing:
Boston, Line 1:
Your anti-terror "heroes" went all Barney Fife over nothing. You guys just need to chill the f**k out and learn to triage terror from shennanigans. If you go the full-monty everytime some paranoid citizen dials the bomb-squad over flashing light and some wires, you're gonna have to figure out a way to pay for that kind of over-kill out of your own budget instead of drama-queening your way into restitution.
Viral Marketers, Line 2:
WTF? Maybe go for something a little less obscure the next go-round, eh? Only about 1 in 5,000 people driving by those signs had any kind of clue what the hell those bird-flipping little dudes were anyway. Way to spook the natives, dorks. Don't forget to include some useful information about your "product" next time. Seriously, this is like the corporate version of "JACKASS."
Bottom Line: Two stupid parties did two stupid things. One was the government the other wasn't. Guess which one wins?
I think Meatwad summed it up like this:
I'll touch 'em all the way to the trash can is what I'll do...
I might know what I'm talkin' about, but then again, this is Slashdot...
I wish I shared your faith. I have traveled extensively, and have worked in many different fields, and my experience with The Population of Earth is that unfortunately they are either too myopic, too uneducated or too busy to worry about governments' machinations. That too, is a tinfoil hat cry; That people are too myopic to see reality is a situation engineered by the masters of the mass media. That people are ignorant of politics is an engineered situation by those in charge of education. That people are too busy just making their mortgage payments is a situation engineered by the financial sector. All corporates have a similar goal: To sell stuff. A compliant, constantly consuming, politically disenfranchised public is the kind of public most willing to allow wealth to flow uphill without resisting. The corporate sector is deliberately engineering a system that people are unable to fight without catastrophic loss to themselves in the form of mortgage defaults, bankruptcy or outright criminalization under ever broadening crime and terrorism legislation. Time to invade another country, this time over tin, because I just used up the national inventory!
I hate printers.
All they wanted was to incite fear and massive panic amongst the people of the USA.
They won.
America the brave. It is to laugh.
First a thank you to all the slashdotters who have unilaterally decided that citizens of my city are gun slinging luddites... Hopefully I can provide a little more of a first-hand analysis.
While there is no question that the reaction of the BPD was an overreaction, there is no question that the actions of Cartoon Network and Interference were totally unacceptable. The first "device" that was found was placed at a critical intersection of the major North-South Interstate highway that feeds the city, a major subway train line, and the commuter rail that services all communities north of the city. Further, it was adjacent to (a few feet away from) the main fiber optic right-of-way between the city and northern communities (a fact that was missed by media - surprise, surprise). Finally, despite the fact that many try to blame this on post-9/11 hysterics, a group of anti-Semites attempted to blow up this same bridge/highway on 4/20/01 (Hitler's birthday - classy) so forgive us for our post 4/20 paranoia.
An explosive device - even one with a limited payload - if successfully detonated would have impacted the ability for more than a half million people to travel to or from and communicate with the metro area. Further, the other devices were placed on every single bridge that allows people to travel out of or into the City of Boston from/to the North.
Finally, the foolish duo that installed these devices were filmed an hour into the incident watching the BPD and bomb squad in their investigation and decided to remain silent for several hours, allowing the situation to continue to snowball out of control.
There is plenty of blame to share here amongst all of the actors involved. It is tempting to blame "the man" for overreacting, but the reality is there is no one that should escape criticism. It is not ever - no - not ever - acceptable for a marketing campaign to be based on the illegal placement of advertisements on publicly owned infrastructure, especially not on critical pathways into and out of a major metro area.
Source: I was there (if only my personal experience could be validated in a wikipedia entry...)
"...the morons who thought that an LED cartoon character giving the finger could be a bomb."
It only looks like an LED cartoon character if you're actually familiar with the character. Otherwise it just looks like a panel of randomly placed LEDs. I believe the people who mistakenly thought it could be a bomb did so with the most earnest of intentions. It would be like throwing round red capsules that explode in a puff of smoke into subway tunnels, then being surprised that no one understands it's a pokemon marketing ploy.
How is it idiocy to raise alarms over a bunch of mysterious symbol-coded boxes appearing without warning throughout major population areas? If you leave a bulging paper sack on the floor in the middle of a crowded mall, people will get concerned. The advertisers should have known better.
If the boxes really were part of an organized campaign of planted explosives, the government would be cheered for its foresight and training. When it's nothing, people like you shrug it off because it didn't turn out tragic this time. That's the price the authorities pay for protecting the people as the people demand.
"Sufferin' succotash."
Pffft, it's not just the Pacific Northwest.
Atlanta didn't freak out, and Atlanta has actually been bombed repeatedly by a terrorist, namely, Eric Robert Rudolph, who, started with the 1996 Olympics, then proceeded to bomb an abortion clinic and a lesbian nightclub, then moving over to Alabama for the last attack. The Olympic attack was, in fact, 'leave an unattended napsack in public'. I don't know what the others were.
If corporations are people, aren't stockholders guilty of slavery?
They should be procescuted to the fullest extent of the law.
For graffiti.
Perhaps if you pour boiling water on a butterfly resting on Godzilla's big toe ...
What changed under Obama? Nothing Good
New York also had these devices, and and managed not to flip out like a pack of morons. And you might see why they're even more touchy about 9/11 since, you know...
The people who reported them - and even more so the police - should be held "responsible". I'm not saying they should be punished, but if anyone is responsible it is them for overreacting without any real evidence of a threat. OMG, there's some lights - it must be a bomb. Lets evacuate the entire city just in case!!! Things like this remind me of how stupid people are. It's kind of depressing in a way. I can understand people reporting something if there was any remote reason to think that it was a bomb. And perhaps I guess it isn't surprising that one or two people reported them. But the police should have been able to quickly determine that they weren't threats in any way shape or form. Granted, maybe that did happen, but the media just blew it out of proportion.
Every time you post an article on Slashdot, I kill a server. Think of the servers!
/me pusts on an asbestos suit and grabs a flamethrower
/me puts away the flamethrower and takes a deep breath
Time to burn some Karma......
I am sorry, but if you dumbfucks in the USA think that giving up all of the freedoms you held dear because 2,000 people died when thousands die yearly from more foolish causes in your country, then your brilliant marketers and others that actually show intelligence, will be jailed as enemies of the state or have their lives ruined in some other way. Any individual that ever thinks independently is going to end up jailed in your 'post 9/11' world. The only thing that truly died on 9/11 was your freedom.
Post 9/11.... What's different? More state control? Less Freedom for Amercians in their own countries? The terrorist attacks of 9/11 were what Ronald Reagan dreamed of, yet Georgie let it happen. The great country of 'America' is dead and lost to the fascists. (yes, I'll say it). Autocratic Conservatives controlled by Corporations. Short Form.. Fascists. I used to look up to you in the US, now I pity you.
I'm sorry for the swearing and all this, but damn this is absolutely ridiculous. An incredible marketing campaign gets several million dollars worth of fines and the guy at the top fired??? Hello!!!
Post 9/11 world. If I hear that phrase again I'm gonna puke. Post 9/11 world .
If any American on this forum actually thinks that a situation like this should just be chalked up to a 'Post 9/11 world', read your fucking constitution, feel half of the outrage that I'm feeling right now, and do something other than put new programs in your Tivos. Your 'Post 9/11 world' is as much a fiction as the Simpsons.
Peace out to those that are outraged about this. Not from an ATHF point of view, but a what is wrong with the US point of view. This is not a slag to the parent, which is actually a thoughtful post, but a absolutely gut-wrenching reaction to 'Post 9-11 world'. The World did not change on 9-11, you did.
What you call a "tubular bundle" most people call a battery. And contrary to what you may think, it is not uncommon to find wires and even electronics attached to such an object.
Ok, so it was wrapped in plastic so they couldn't see the Duracell logos maybe, but what did they think was powering the lights then? High explosives don't power lights, batteries do. Think.
We hope your rules and wisdom choke you / Now we are one in everlasting peace
I literally can't imagine a stupider response on behalf of the Boston police/gov't. I think they were legitimately confused, as to the nature of the signs, and instead of looking for a reasonable answer, let all the fox-news wolf-crying (are terrorists in your kitchen? find out tonight at eleven!) stir them into a bomb-squad frenzy. Then, I think they were so embarassed by their own resulting ineptitude and overreaction that, to save face, they went on the warpath and used their bully pulpit to cow those port advertising guys, as well as everyone at Cartoon Network. Which is a damn shame -- it's as clear a case of abuse of power as you can get. If anyone should be resigning, it's the Mayor, for infringing on freedom of speech and expression. This is not much different, honestly, than this story other than scale.
who let a poet in here?
It's a post-Hitler world, and any idiot can still run for office in a democratic election. Speaking freely is comparatively harmless.
Obvious counter-argument: Bombs can be disguised as all manner of things. Should the bomb squad be detonating that car that's parked at an expired meter? How about the lunch bag someone threw away in the public trashcan? Is that an empty twelve-pack box someone threw out their window or... a bomb! Think of the shitstorms!
/dev/null would suffice).
Obvious counter-counter-argument: The examples you describe are all rather ordinary events. The lightboards were anything but, being crude electrically-powered devices of no apparent use or reason for being there. Barring other logical explanation, the authorities were right to treat the devices with suspicion.
My Conclusion: Everyone involved should be ashamed of their lack of forethought and moderation. The bomb squad really needs to learn to chill out and better analyze the situation before saturating it with a bomb-proof material apparently consisting partially of shredded reprocessed post-consumer cash. The marketing company really needs to learn to think through the possible consequences of their actions, take reactionary idiots into account, and to provide reassuring factors in advance... say, a label saying who placed the device (hell, even a front-company name and an 800 number leading to a concerned-sounding recorded message and a voice-mailbox routed to
My bonus, director's cut, generalized offtopic rant: Personally, as both a marketer and a citizen, I'm annoyed by all these "guerrilla advertising" tactics of marketers who knowingly and willingly paste, post, and plaster their advertisements all over public property-- it's like the corporate version of uninspired felt-marker taggers, adding nothing worthwhile, just pissing on hydrants for their own pleasure.
Information wants to be free.
Entertainment wants to be paid.
You just want to be cheap.
Please, don't provide any encouragement or validation to this flawed line of reasoning. As a free and open society with limited resources, we have to be prepared to accept a certain amount of risk. "Erring on the side of caution," (i.e. maximum panic-mode) for such an obviously low-risk situation is irresponsible, expensive, and counterproductive.
Rather than live in a fantasy world where Bostonians are applauded as heroes because they disarm lite brites filled with imaginary explosives, we need to rationally think about this. Otherwise, there's no end to this madness.
Anything could be a bomb. Can you ever rule out the possibility of "the terrorists" surgically implanting bombs within their abdominal cavities? Or what if evil terrorist surgeons implanted bombs into unknowing patients? In which case... maybe YOU could be a bomb! Maybe I'm a bomb! What if they've been at work since we were all born. Maybe... we're all bombs! So, in light of this, what should we do now? Surgically operate on everyone--just to be sure? My God! We'd be heroes, the saviors of a very thankful nation if we were right!
So, the question is then: why should we discard my obviously silly possibility but still consider the similarly ridiculous killer lite-brite scenario?
-Grym
Comedy Central should have taken it to court. Aside from small fines from littering laws, is it really even illegal to leave random stuff around a city? Just because it has a little LED guy on it shouldn't make it illegal. And seriously, why in the world would a terrorist mark their bombs with light-up cartoon characters? What sense does that even make? Not everything is a potential terrorist action. Just because the police over-reacted instead of having a bomb squad guy take a look at it and say, "no, this is more like a Lite Bright than a bomb", doesn't make it Comedy Central's responsibility to pay for everything.
ZuluPad, the wiki notepad on crack
agreed this terrorist bullshit has got to stop right now. this isn't iraq with IED's randomly around the place. this is an excuse to take our freedoms.
If you mod me down, I will become more powerful than you can imagine....
It was Cartoon Network, not Comedy Central.
splunge (n) -- A good idea.. but it could be lousy... and I'm not being indecisive!
It only looks like an LED cartoon character if you're actually familiar with the character.
;)
I'd say it would be pretty familiar to anyone who'd ever played "space invaders" too. (ie pretty much anyone under 40.)
Otherwise it just looks like a panel of randomly placed LEDs.
If by "random" you mean "a clear image of something giving you the finger" I suppose so.
I believe the people who mistakenly thought it could be a bomb did so with the most earnest of intentions.
True but we don't really have much use for people who report things that aren't bombs. How many innocent cardboard boxes, guitar cases, gymbags, abandoned Dells, old speakers, and other nondescript "potentially suspicious looking" debris is lying around Boston? They could shut the city down for an entire decade with earnest intentions.
People should know better. When I see a plane flying low I still assume its landing, not attacking the city...
I can understand how this got out of hand but it'll happen again. Around here Telus is putting up pink flamingos all around the city as part of its latest campaign... they're hollow and in public places and they weren't there yesterday... could be a bomb in there.
Seriously if the 'terrorists' were planting bombs everyone they'd make them look like run of the mill every day items like transformer boxes... hmm... wait... i saw a transformer box on one of the support columns in my parkade... i don't remember that being there before... excuse me...
One could argue that anyone who understands the "sad state of affairs" the United States is in would be idiotic to perpetrate such a campaign.
Things like this make it very clear all the terrorists in the world aiming at the USA can go home and leave the USA alone for a few years. They won and anything they do won't be half as bad as the imagination of American bureaucrates and the average retarded Joe. The USA can destroy itself all by it's self. Unless Bush goes out the window and the USA gets rid of the fear mongering media you guys lost. clear and simple
I'm probably not going to be much noticed in this discussion being AC and all, but I have to ask an important question.
You, me and everyone else with an opinion has debated whether this device could or should be interpreted as a possible threat. You say it is understandable that it would be seen as a threat, other's say the opposite, but I haven't really seen anyone answer, or even ask, the most important question. This event is over, so we're looking at it with hindsight, but the more important question is how do we determine what is acceptable in the future?
When I hear people say that it "had wires and lights" and that it had a box attached that "could have been full of explosives," I picture an amazingly high number of devices that fit those descriptions. When I hear that the police "couldn't take any chances," I picture each of those devices being confiscated and deactivated. When I hear "the company should have know better" than to place something that could "obviously" be considered a threat in public, I picture all the things that me or my friends do and I have no choice but to wonder what exactly we need to be more careful about to avoid this kind of reaction?
It's an important question. People use words like "obvious," but it is not so obvious to me what is right and what is wrong here.
If we decide based on actual threat significance, all of our cars are going to be confiscated. Not only are they capable of holding a very large amount of explosives, but they've been on the short list of terrorist-preferred bomb delivery methods for quite some time. Since they have the capability plus an actual history of danger, we should be very worried about them, right?
I think most people would see this argument as absurd. We need our cars, and cars are common. We can't just go around labeling every car as suspicious. It's just common sense. At least that's what I hear everyone saying in my head, but that gets me to my second potential criteria for deciding whether something could be considered a threat. Is it unusual, does it have a compartment big enough to house a bomb, and does it have some electronic gear attached. That seems to be what many of these people are labeling "suspicious."
I routinely carry around a cell phone and I often have a portable game console with me. Sometimes I have a laptop. Most people would recognize these as common, and they would not cause suspicion. They're also arguably too small to house a bomb. Like many people, I have a couple of game consoles at home as well, but I don't commonly carry them with me and they're never turned on with a batter pack and slung under my arm. If I did this, for example to play a game on a small LCD in public, would it be unusual enough to get attention? Should I take some precautions to let people know the device is ok? In the groups of people I tend to associate with, this would be slightly unusual, but immediately recognized as innocuous. To an elderly woman, such a box might go unrecognized and cause alarm.
But what if I wasn't carrying a PS2(full sized old one), but an unusual computer of about the same size. It's a mini-itx in a clear case with two hard drives, a battery pack and plenty of lights. It's basically a fancy DVR that I jazzed up a little to make it look "cool" including hiding the drives and batter behind a metal shelf for a clean appearance. It's only recognizable as a computer by someone fairly knowledgeable about such things, and even then only if they take a moment to look a little closer. Basically, until further inspection, it's just a box with a bunch of lights and electronics with a boxed off area plenty big enough to house a bomb. It is very unusual compared to what people are used to seeing on a daily basis, but it's really just a common computer on the inside. Should it be "obvious" to me that people might become alarmed and should I take special precautions to warn them that it's not dangerous? If I accidentally leave it at the bus stop, should I expect th
I concur. These boxes didn't have Arabic on them only flashing lights. While I still think that a terror attack is a real threat, the terrorism is obviously working as planned. Al-Qaeda has disrupted our lives and Boston just propagated that fear. It's good that Boston was paying attention, but then again they wasted 2 million dollars on a false alarm. Nice detective work, boys.
Sierra Tango Foxtrot Uniform
Storm. Butterflies cause storms. I don't know what's responsible for earthquakes - moles, perhaps.
USE HOT GRITS WITH STATUE OF NATALIE PORTMAN (NAKED AND PETRIFIED)
Even better, as posted in the other reply: the sign in broad daylight in context of where it was hung
Please, for the love of all that is sane and logical, admit that this looks nothing like a random collection of LEDs, no matter who you are.
Your completely logical argument only applies here if you make the assumption this situation was "similarly ridiculous [sic]"
The only debate here is whether or not these devices could or should have been mistaken for bombs. The first device reported to the police was found on a support beam for a major highway bridge in a spot practically no one would ever see it - perfect spot for a bomb, not so perfect spot for an advertisement.
However, while I can understand treating that discovery a little more cautiously, that was at 8:18AM. The city government (along with the feds) disrupted the city for another 12 hours after. I don't think the city overreacted on that first one. I'm not so sure I want to take the side that the city didn't overreact for the rest of the day.
And I certainly don't want to take the side that "you can distribute crudely constructed electrical devices throughout a city and be free of responsibility for it." You can't yell fire in a theatre when it's not, no matter how much you believe in the first amendment. By the same argument, you can't haphazardly make it look like the theatre is on fire when it's not, either.
That line from Syriana has rung true again. The reason that Boston's response seems stupid is that you are mistaking it for what Boston authorities have claimed it to be; a response to maintain public safety. They didn't make a response to maintain public safety. They made a response to maintain the illusion that they are protecting public safety. They are not paying attention to anything more than how they appear. It's the nature of corrupt officials to seek first and foremost to protect themselves, and usually to stop when they feel they appear to have done their jobs. Whether or not they actually have done their jobs is usually unimportant to the corrupt, and in most cases is repugnant to them, in that they are then no more cagey or clever than the audience that they seek to fool.
The problem with that reasoning is that you conclude that the police should detonate everything, because anything could be a bomb. There is a the potential risk that this piece of mail I just received has anthrax. It's possible my ThinkGeek order has a bomb in it. By your reasoning, I should call the police and have them detonate it just to be sure. Life is about risks - and blowing up every random LED sign is playing it too safe.
The evil genius of Osama bin Laden was to realize that there is a "critical switch" in American psychology that he could flip. He doesn't have to take us down himself, just set the process in motion and watch as the government and society slowly destroy themselves.
Eh, no Mr Bomb expert, we shouldn't "detonate" everything, but when the police get a possible bomb called in, they have to take it seriously. If they treat it like a real bomb and it turns out to be a hoax, the worst that happens is that they waste some time, people get excited, and clueless idiots on slashdot get a new topic to rant and rave about. On the other hand, if they treat it like a joke and it turns out to be a real bomb, the bomb squad suddenly gets reduced in size, some women and kids get to cry over flag-draped coffins, and assholes everywhere get to mutter and laugh about "dumb cops".
Since you're such an explosives expert, why don't you outline what changes should be made to bomb-squad policy in order to avoid these incidents in the future? Hell, I've got an idea! Next time they have a bomb threat, they can just call up you and the other slashdot nerds! Your linux experience will come in real handy while you're on your hands and knees, with your face inches away from what could be a live explosive. Then you can show all those dumb comps what a joke their job really is!
Jim Samples should not have resigned. He did nothing wrong. His company did nothing wrong. The lawsuit and its result were unjust. But Samples rightly perceived that the public, as willing victims of globalization, had identified his company as "tur'rists", and decided that it wasn't worth himself or his employees going to a torture chamber.
The U.S.A. is full of hysterical ninnies whose sense of being American does not extend beyond cheap slogans invented by our British imperial enemy. That's why they can't see the enemy within: they have nothing left in their minds that is truly American that they can compare with Cheney, to reveal that he is totally un-American, and Bush, too, by implication, because he does everything Cheney tells him to do.
9-11 was orchestrated by the enemy within, and that enemy's agenda is globalization, the new imperialism. The Economist magazine, based in London, just released a special, boasting of the revival of the British Empire through globalization! Where is the spirit of 1776? Where is the rigorous scientific method of Benjamin Franklin, not just in his electrical experiments, but in his political intelligence and political leadership. Never satisfied with judgements based on appearances, he always sought to uncover the principles governing all the action.
Apply Franklin's method to "terrorism". Look at the vote fraud in 2000, the bigger vote fraud in 2004, the pre-inaugural rush in late 2000- early 2001 to nominate John Ashcroft for Attorney General. What is the more probable motive for 9-11: to make the U.S. submit to the rule of Osama bin Laden, or to establish a police state under Bush and Cheney, or to allow Bush and Cheney to loot the U.S. until the U.S. Treasury is no longer able to sell bonds, putting our government totally in the hands of the financial circle behind Cheney & Bush?
"Gee.. those lite brites look like a character from Aqua Teen Hunger Force (someone in the department must have known that) maby we should call up cartoon network to see if they know anything about this. *ring* *ring* Cartoon Network: Hello? Boston Police: Hi, this is the Boston Police did you put up lite brites around out city? Cartoon Network: Yes we did.. its a part of our advertising campaign for Aqua Teen Hunger Force. Boston Police: Oh ok, we were just making sure they weren't bombs. Cartoon Network: No no.. nothing explosive about them. Boston Police: Thanks a lot, we didn't want to shutdown transportation all over the city over some stupid lite brites. Cartoon Network: Yeah, that would have made you look like dumb pieces of shit. Boston Police: Yes it would have."
The scenario you describe is perfect, EXCEPT for one thing. The marketing geniuses who put it up did not bother to include on the devices ANY kind of identifyng information. If they had, I would agree with you completely.
But, as it actually happened, what were the cops on the ground supposed to to with four 911 calls within an hour and finding 3 of these devices on the most strategically located bridges (and fiber-optic conduits) in Boston and the other near a hospital? Maybe the thing itself doesn't look like a bomb, but why couldn't it just be one component of a wireless trigger system?
Perhaps report back that "it might be suspicious, or it might look a bit like some character in some show my teenaager watched once, so you better send out the marketing analysis experts before we call the bomb squad.".
Remember this was a very low-res pixel graphic with no identifying info meant to be obscure for a targeted audience. It wasn't like it flashed letters for national brands like "Coke" or even a local one like "Joe's Pizza".
While I usually find myself very much on the anti-authority side of the argument, in this case, they were doing their jobs exactly right. Call the bemb experts, clear the area, let them figure out what it is, and call the "All Clear" when it is ok.
The Bomb Squads of the other cities didn't RECEIVE any calls, or they would have responded in the same manner. And how exactly do you "evaluate the possibility that the thing even is a bomb before evacuating the populace" without being able to physically examine the thing? What, you think the bomb squad has some magical CIA spy satellite that they can use to detect explosives from the comfort of their lay-z-boys? Seriously, give your head a shake and start fresh. Obviously you're totally oblivious about police procedures, but you can't be THIS devoid of common sense.
The lower ratings might have something to do with the fact that the show is in its off-season right now. My guess is that these ads were in fact for the upcoming movie. I find it odd that Forbes didn't mention either fact.
Yeah, me neither. You're not very good at it.
Listen, when YOU have a job that involves risking your life on a regular basis, THEN you can comment.
Ah, the old "you can't complain about the food unless you're a chef" chestnut. Pay attention, idiot: When it's my money paying for the food, or when I have to wait two hours for it while it gets cold because some jerkoff like you thinks it might be a bomb, I have every right to comment.
Have some perspective. On September 11, one well funded terrorist organization succeeded in making an attack. 3,000 people died, about the number of people that die in traffic accidents every two weeks. I'm just not seeing the demonstrations over outlawing cars. At Columbine, about 20 people were killed on one day, but thats about how many kids hang themselves accidentally in mini blinds every day, did you take down your mini-blinds. Terrorism relies on the press to sensationalize an item. The politicians volley the fear back and forth, making more and more laws for the sake of making laws to look effective. The result is that a few good laws are enforced and obeyed. Many silly laws are ignored. This leads to anarchy. Welcome to Iraq.
- High Tech workers, please say NO to Union Carpenters, their Union sees fit to control our compensation.