Pressure cooker IEDs points fingers straight at Al Qaeda

Sagarin wrote:

Politicizing attacks sucks wrote:

No one knows anything. Why get into left / right squabbles? What is the point?

Who knows if the type is Al Qaeda, Rudolph, McVeigh, Malvo, a deranged guy like the Aurora shooter?

In any event, you all condemn the act. So what are you fighting about?

This is correct. This IS the point. The individual(s) who did this is a sick son of a bitch devoid of a moral compass. There's no point in insinuating anything until we get more facts. Otherwise, it's just divisive demagoguery all over again.

__

because it is a good idea to talk and think about the national and global political situation.

reasoned sorting through the currents in the USA is worthwhile.

For example, many conservative commentators use words like 'tyrant,' assert we are losing our freedoms, and other revolutionary talk. This is a good time to call them out.

Accusations should not be made, but discussing what is going on politically/socially in this country is necessary. Moments like this can clarify thought.

I suppose a good argument against what I am saying is that lrc is not a viable forum for the kind of discussion I am advocating. but I do learn from lrc posters so I am sure others do to.

"It is hard to pinpoint exactly why or when America lost its soul and became so brutish, unthinking and deaf to others. So uncharitable. It certainly isn’t how we reacted in the aftermath of 9/11.

Was it spawned by the blind hatred in some of former President George W. Bush? Is it because of the blind hatred in others today of Mr. Obama? Or is there just so much regret on both sides that the unity after 9/11 birthed two unpopular wars and turned the federal government into an even more unpopular security leviathan?

Whatever it is, it is corroding the soul of America and our soul must be cleansed of it before we will ever be great again."

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/apr/16/hurt-pox-both-sides-perpetual-rush-politics/?page=all#pagebreak

So conservative commentators use the word tyrant (though I've never heard it)? What about this clown? Is this constructive?

http://www.salon.com/2013/04/16/lets_hope_the_boston_marathon_bomber_is_a_white_american/

The Washington Times article is right, even if you don't like the source. There is a rush to judgement on both sides, and it just leads to further polarization and divisiveness, not constructive dialogue.

I'm getting that bad feeling in the back of my head that I am wrong on this - that maybe I am being partisan. I will stop and think.

Unless provoked.

after thinking about that piece, sagarin...I think what happened is that politics started to matter again. In the 60s and 70s politics mattered because of all the revolutions - sexual, racial, economic, against vietnam.

in the 80s and 90s politics didn't matter so much. Americans were free to ignore politics. Presidents were all within the 40 yard lines, if you will. There wasn;t much disagreement. Clinton was hardly a liberal, Bush 1 was hardly a conservative.

That does seem to have changed - interesting question why.

Or maybe my assumptions are wrong - maybe I just care more because I am older and crankier.

Could be anything - technology and a poorer work ethic, a lack of moral grounding in our homes and neighborhoods (and schools for that matter), popular media and the celebration of all things violence, "reality TV," and superficial news with shallow analysis, a changing demographic... Heck, maybe it' the crappy food and electromagnetic radiation exposure that has grown exponentially in the last couple of decades that's driving us all crazy.

The divorce rate is skyrocketing, children are confused, and we as parents don't engage. Your typical "family" no longer eats dinner together or even cooks, no longer goes camping without bringing some type of electronic entertainment along, no longer relates to our neighbors and community. Church attendance is on the decline. Secularism is on the rise.

We are all partisan to a degree, hence my own tendency to endorse Precious Roy's statement, even as he's a liberal. But I think it was my own knee-jerk reaction to premature implication from anybody.

Sbooby Doo wrote:

Let's see we have Nagasaki, Hiroshima..

They have, ...., never mind.

^^FIXED^^

Sagarin wrote:

The divorce rate is skyrocketing, children are confused, and we as parents don't engage. ... Church attendance is on the decline. Secularism is on the rise.

the US divorce rate has been declining since 1980

Church attendance is rising

what has been declining are real wages, and the availability of public goods like health care and education. In that regard, the US is truly shameful in its production of an uneducated disenfranchised underclass.

why would you link to an article that tells how to do this kind of thing?

That Gallup poll is misleading. Church attendance is declining.

http://www.churchleaders.com/pastors/pastor-articles/139575-7-startling-facts-an-up-close-look-at-church-attendance-in-america.html

http://www.familyfacts.org/charts/620/church-attendance-is-declining

As far as divorce, it's a mixed picture. I suppose it's how you parse the data:

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5ibKyCkXrV67Q_M4h6zC-rgc1YXnQ?docId=CNG.b3179216f55b905d4c8f5516b86569b9.261

http://www.cnn.com/2012/06/24/living/baby-boomer-divorce

Technological advancement, combined with poor fiscal and Fed policy have undermined real median income. The US is by far and away the most obese and sickly nation of any in the developed world, so to pretend that we can "provide" for this public good in any cost-effective, reasonable manner as compared to the rest of the world is unicorns and pixie dust.

And I would agree with education, but we throw more and more money at it every year with debatable results, at least in the traditional public realm.

http://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=66

Besides, I was just throwing out some ideas as to why we have lost our moral compass, but lost it we have. We are a culture in decline. People are just selfish, short-sighted, and spiritless.

Sagarin wrote:

Church attendance is on the decline. Secularism is on the rise.

So a society moving away from superstition and in the direction of rationality is evidence of a problem? I think not.

agip wrote:

For example, many conservative commentators use words like 'tyrant,' assert we are losing our freedoms, and other revolutionary talk. This is a good time to call them out.

You are a real piece of work, aren't you. Pot calling the kettle black, yet Mr. Pot doesn't even have the cognitive awareness to know he's doing it.

When our own DHS is calling the Tea Party "extremist", calling mainstream Christians "potential domestic terrorists" ..... right there, THAT is the causal factor of stirring idiots to act of their own accord.

I suppose you have no idea of the FRC attacks, where a gay activist tried to murder members of the Family Research Council simply because they oppose the radical gay agenda.

So next time you want to spout off about "hateful language", go look in the mirror to see the source of that ignorant hateful language.

It's funny how the U.S. bombs the hell out of every country but as soon as they get bombed it actually means something. No wonder the Palestinians dance in the streets. If I had suffered like them and the Afghanis at the hands of the U.S. I would probably be dancing too.

agip wrote:

sorry you right wingers have so much recent violence in your name to live with - I really am. I can tell it bothers you.

Probably many muslims feel the same way.

Wrong wrong and wrong again. You are the terrorists best friend. Right wing whites boys WRONG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I know alot of kids got turned down at BROWN top IB kids. Your IVY league schools do their affirm action and PUT our bombers in the big schools.

YOU make me puke. You listened to all that bull crap the national teachers union dumped on you all your school years. You are all the greatest cowards on earth. Now the other bomber is running house to house to break in and barricade himself. Better not come to our house...we are waiting BIG TIME!

That's typical BS.

I knew a teen-ager decades ago who built s similar bomb

Huge Turbodouche wrote:

In order to properly round out your wingnuttery, you need to refer to the president as Barack HUSSEIN Obama (and use all cals, like I just did, as this adds necessary emphasis). Right-wing turdballs really do see this as a knock-down argument.

I don't get it---are you denying that Barack Obama has blood on his hands? Or just making fun of me because you don't like my position?

It is a simple fact that Obama (like Bush) has innocent blood on his hands, you can try to deny that (like liberals usually do with facts), but it doesn't mean it isn't true.

agip wrote:

sorry you right wingers have so much recent violence in your name to live with - I really am. I can tell it bothers you.

Probably many muslims feel the same way.

hahahahahahaa

you're an idiot

of course, we knew that before but this is just hilarious

From 2002 to 2007, only nine right-wing extremists were indicted for their roles in politically motivated murders and other types of ideologically motivated violent assaults. But between 2008 and 2012, the number mushroomed to 53, according to data collected by the New America Foundation.

Militants linked to al Qaeda or inspired by jihadist ideology have carried out four terrorist attacks in the United States since September 11, which have resulted in 17 deaths. Thirteen of them were in a shooting incident at Fort Hood, Texas, in November 2009.

By contrast, right-wing extremists have committed at least eight lethal terrorist attacks in the United States that have resulted in the deaths of nine people since 9/11, according to data compiled by the New America Foundation.

Peter Bergen

Peter Bergen

And if, after investigation, Sunday's attack on the Sikh temple in Wisconsin is included in this count, the death toll from right-wing terrorism in the U.S. over the past decade rises to 15.

the attempted MLK Day bombing in Spokane was hardly an isolated incident. Right-wing domestic terrorist plots and extremist violence are on the rise in America. Earlier this year the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC) released a report analyzing domestic terrorism statistics reported by the FBI and other crime agencies since the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The MPAC report shows that since 9/11, right-wing extremists including neo-Nazis and other white supremacists have been involved in 63 domestic terror plots, while radical Muslims have been involved in 45.