Wednesday, October 12, 2005

University Bombings

There have been bombings or attempted bombings at UCLA, Georgia Tech, and the University of Oklahoma recently. My question is - why the hell haven't these stories been in the news? And not to sound too much like the paranoid nut, but isn't three a little more than a coincidence?

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Media's too busy pursuing the scalp of Tom 'The Hammer' Delay to worry about that pesky terrorist thing.

Anonymous said...

http://www.townhall.com/opinion/columns/michellemalkin/2005/10/12/170921.html

Anonymous said...

Check out Michelle Malkin's column on townhall.com titled 'Nothing to see here, move along'

Stephen said...

I don't know what the normal rate is.

dcat said...

Well, first off, this is not a zero sum game -- criminal activity by DeLay is serious news and it is silly to suggest that a lack of coverage of one is indicative of overemphasis on the other. Furthermore, I'm sorry, but DeLay is a national story. AS of right now, these bombings are not -- I lament that every night in every major city a murder will lead off the news when, for the citizens of those cities, the murder is simply not the most important story in the city that day. Why then should we suddenly grant national attention to these events that have not yet been shown to be tied to widespread threats of terrorism? Surely every alleged terrorist attack is not prima facie front page news? Surely this is not going to be yet another lame excuse to blame the media? Or is that really the only tool that some people have on their belts? These are not, as of now. problems wityh 'the media." (Oh, by the way -- aren't all three of these newspaper stories? The media's fault indeed.)
Second, I still do not see a causal relationship between the three incidents, but I agree, it is alarming to see and of course we should take such incidents seriously. I have no reason to believe that the proper authorities are not doing just that.
But third, it also seems that we have a situation here, especially outside of the Oklahoma case, in which we need to remind ourselves that it is not only Jihadist terrorism that we have to worry about.
Finally, let's also remember that there is room for humility here. We are all antiterrorist heroes in the comfort of the blogosphere. That said, let's trust that we we do not know is enormous here -- what we do not know about local officials' responses, what we do not know about coordination with state and federal authorities and so forth. I am certain that people are doing their jobs and doing it well. Let's not go off half cocked in our desire to be more ardent than thou.

dcat

Anonymous said...

Dcat
You can address me directly, instead of addressing me indirectly with the phrase 'some people.'

You can also refute my points without being so rude and condescending. You have never met me, yet you feel the need to insult me with smart-ass statements because I posted a 20-word comment and a reading suggestion on a blog. How superior that must make you feel.

Criminal activity and criminal accusations by a two-bit prosecutor who needed 6 grand juries to indict Mr. Delay are two different things.

These bombings have things in common; they occurred on university campuses. That makes them important nationally.

I feel like this discussion has occurred before, so rehashing it will do no good.

dcat said...

Paul --
My knowing you has nothing to do with any of this. I made several substantive points, you addressed none of them, then accuse me of condescension. Fine, i condescended to the post you made,. which was wrong on several points, however few words it consisted of.
As for the fact that three bombings with clearly different modus operendi in three different locales are in any way connected other than happening to have happened on university campuses, well, you'll both have to prove to me more than that and you will have to show me that the appropriate authorities are not acting as they should. I'm not sure whether equating them all as being somehow linked is something that can simply be asserted.

Meanwhile, what precise "smart asssed comments" that were "condescending" did I make? You are like the students at universities who suddenly pretend to be hypersensitive when it is convenient for you. But let's look at the comment that led this whole discussion off: "Media's too busy pursuing the scalp of Tom 'The Hammer' Delay to worry about that pesky terrorist thing."

You were saying about smart assed and condescending? That I am better at it (and can simultaneously proffer an actual argument) is too bad for you, but don't whine about it. You started the condescension and the smart assishness. That you don't like it aimed at you might make you a hypocrite. It does not, however, make you invulnerable.

Meanwhile, I'm not in favor of any witch hunts. How is the DeLay indictment a witch hunt? I live in Texas, and the word around the campfire, especially down Houston way, is that DeLay is in trouble. The alleged politicization of the indictment does not take into account the number of indictments that the same prosecutor has made against Democrats. It did not take six grand juries to get the two indictments -- there were six grand juries for several charges, these two stuck. We'll see what the court process has to say.

But more important, what does the bait and switch of DeLay have to do with the bombings on three campuses, none of which appear to be in any way connected? DeLay is irrelevant here, has nothing to do with the issue Ren raised, and was a diversionary tactic by someone suddenly with hurt feelings.

I maintain my original point: Anyone talking on Big Tent about the specifics of the investigations on the universities does not know what he is talking about. This has nothing to do with some perfidy by the media (who has been so lax that they nonetheless managed to give us the very stories some are claiming they are not covering -- quite a trick, that) and as of now, this is simply not a national story. If it becomes one, great. But it seems rather cheap to allage that the media is blinded by Tom DeLay and thus are not giving this story the front page coverage it deserves.
I look forward to Paul once again avoiding the subsance of my comments to give us his bruised ego shtick. Funny how this became all about him, and yet I am the one being told how superior I must feel. In any case, I'll take my chances that those feelings might well be warranted.

dc

Anonymous said...

I called you rude and condescending because you are, not because my feelings were hurt. If it gives you an ego boost, go right ahead and think that you have that much power over my feelings.

My original point stands. Given a choice, the media would much rather print/broadcast ACCUSATIONS of wrongdoing about a Republican than investigate the possibility of terrorism on American college campuses.

Why was it that Columbine and Paducah, Kentucky got so much media focus, but potential terrorist activity on college campuses is a ho-hum event. I also remember a few months after 9-11, a high school freshman in Clearwater, FL flew a single-engine plane into a building and it got national news coverage.

And yes, dcat, I did get the information about the bombings from the media, you've made that point perfectly clear. But it doesn't seem to register at all on the mainstream media's radar screen. (alphabet networks, newsmagazines, AP, Reuters)