News Stories

[Roger Rambo]

Originally Posted by AnimeFan188

Virginia Mall Shooter Apparently Announced Crime in Advance on 4chan:

"The man arrested today in connection to the shooting of two women at a suburban
Virginia mall may have announced his crime minutes in advance on the 4chan
message board."

See:

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/201...-mall-shooter/

One thing I heard was that the reason the bodycount for this incident was so low was that apparently the /b/tards immediately notified the authorities very soon after the thread got created.

/b/ is a bit of a pit of subhuman degeneracy, but it'd be a shame if they got associated with being a cause for this kind of stuff in an incident when they tried to warn the authorities about an imminent shooting.

[RRW]

Britons are less inclined than the French to regard the workless as indulged, readier than the Germans to pay taxes to help them, and decidedly less relaxed about top salaries than the Americans, according to a major transnational study by the academic thinktank YouGov-Cambridge, which put identical questions to voters across four democracies at the same time.

The findings – shared exclusively with the Guardian – also demonstrate that Britons retain a European-style sense that the state has sweeping societal responsibilities, in defiance of Margaret Thatcher's 1980s efforts to shift the onus on to the individual. Most Britons, 52%, regard it as the government's job to redistribute income right the way across the income spectrum, as against the distinct minority of Americans, 32%, who take the same view.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/20...france-germany

[SaintessHeart]

It has been that way since medieval Britain. They used to have a belief that being rich is a blessing from god, and such a blessing should be used prudently to help the poor. Sure it is bad for the economy as it reduces competition, but the whole of society tends to be better off during the harder times.

[ganbaru]

Tight win for Chavez's heir spells uncertainty for Venezuela
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/...93C0B120130415

[ChainLegacy]

Two explosions went off at the Boston Marathon. It's actually right up the street from where I've done some work this past year. Still not much information available as it just happened.

[Urzu 7]

Yeah, I just saw on the news on TV about the two explosions at the Boston Marathon.

They were two small explosions that happened seconds apart from each other. Right now a number of people are injured, but there are no deaths reported so far. People being taken away on wheelchairs didn't look too bad. Some obviously were in pain, but no one was mangled from what I saw. I saw some people with some bloodied areas on their bodies, though. Still, this is awful. I wonder who did the attacks. I hope it wasn't some lone wolf terrorist/s that sympathize with Al Qaeda.

[konart]

Some photos from the place.

NSFW, 18+

https://twitter.com/theoriginalwak/s...864128/photo/1
https://twitter.com/907RAVFM/status/...693696/photo/1
https://twitter.com/JackieBrunoNECN/...818370/photo/1

Vine video cut: http://www.thecommentator.com/articl...s_many_injured

[KiraYamatoFan]

Godawful stuff.

Whoever did this should get his/her ass dragged into the street and beaten by angry mobs.

edit: This is bad. There are 3 dead according to updated news.

[Urzu 7]

Yeah, a few people have died so far.

I'm worried those WBC losers will protest at their funerals. They always make something bad even worse. They truly make the world a worse place.

[konart]

BOSTON: BREAKING NEWS - LOCAL OFFICIALS: 2 MORE BOMBS FOUND NOW BY BOMB SQUAD

BOSTON: RIGHT NOW - ANOTHER EXPLOSION AT THE JFK LIBRARY. EMERGENCY PERSONNEL RUSHING! #911BUFF

The fuck?

[Vexx]

My current money is on domestic rightwing, possibly white supremacists. Given the target event, the city, the local and national politics, and the recent surge in white supremacist violence.

There's my dart. Now to wait and see if the data reinforces that or not.

[Dextro]

Originally Posted by Vexx

My current money is on domestic rightwing, possibly white supremacists. Given the target event, the city, the local and national politics, and the recent surge in white supremacist violence.

There's my dart. Now to wait and see if the data reinforces that or not.

That was actually my first thought. The Boston marathon isn't a particularly international event for the foreign terrorist groups to target and the explosions themselves seemed pretty small.

I just hope they find the mother******.

[SeijiSensei]

Originally Posted by Dextro

That was actually my first thought. The Boston marathon isn't a particularly international event for the foreign terrorist groups to target and the explosions themselves seemed pretty small.

This year's Marathon field included runners from nearly a hundred countries. The talk among the "security professionals" being interviewed on television news suggests the Marathon was picked precisely because the attackers knew they would get global attention. Though strangely whoever did this has remained silent so far.

The attack on the JFK library is instructive. It's a couple of miles away across the harbor from the Marathon route. Targeting it seems to have only a political rationale. Whether it's because Kennedy also commands global attention or whether it's because he's a symbol of liberalism I cannot say.

However I will point out that today commemorates the victory by the colonial forces over the British redcoats at Lexington and Concord in 1775. It's called Patriots' Day in Massachusetts and is a statewide holiday. (The battle actually occurred on the 19th of April, but we have moved all our holidays to the nearest preceding Monday to create three-day weekends.)

One other relevant thing about April 15th in America is that it is the day personal income taxes are due. Remember they threw the tea into the harbor because of the taxes under the Tea Act

I'm not kidding about this stuff either, nor am I making light of the event. I know two or perhaps three people have already died and a couple dozen more are injured. Some have lost arms or legs or been horribly wounded by flying shards of broken glass. Some of the people crossing the finish line when the bombs went off might have run past me when I watched the runners go by at the beginning of Heartbreak Hill. If extremist "patriots" were involved, these symbolic aspects of the day could matter very much.

The "informed" opinion thinks the devices were IEDs, and relatively unsophisticated ones at that. The pattern of white smoke led one commentator to claim it was unlikely the device held C4 or plastique. He thought it more likely to be the kind of explosive you can cook up in your kitchen sink.

[james0246]

^It's sad to say, but my greatest fear right now is that this is entirely an internal matter, a home grown terrorist killing for some misbegotten awful interpretation of patriotism or freedom.

[SeijiSensei]

Apparently the fire at the Kennedy Library was just that, a fire, and not associated with the bombings. That was the original prognosis, then a Police Commissioner pronounced on national television that the events at the Library were tied to the bombings. Way to create even more confusion.

[Badkarma 1]

Just caught this via the news feed. It does remind me of the IEDs that were used in Iraq and A-Stan.
Over 100 injured, 2-3 dead. The JFK device has been taken for examination and destruction.
Who ever did was looking for collateral damage!
It's too early to point fingers at any one group or groups, and the regular "alphabet soup" agencies are inbound.
A Saudi national is being detained at the moment.
It ain't over yet!

[Ithekro]

It would be wacky if it was Korean rather than any sort of Middle Eastern or American group involved.

Not wacky in a good way, just wacky.

[Xagzan]

Originally Posted by SeijiSensei

This year's Marathon field included runners from nearly a hundred countries. The talk among the "security professionals" being interviewed on television news suggests the Marathon was picked precisely because the attackers knew they would get global attention. Though strangely whoever did this has remained silent so far.

The attack on the JFK library is instructive. It's a couple of miles away across the harbor from the Marathon route. Targeting it seems to have only a political rationale. Whether it's because Kennedy also commands global attention or whether it's because he's a symbol of liberalism I cannot say.

However I will point out that today commemorates the victory by the colonial forces over the British redcoats at Lexington and Concord in 1775. It's called Patriots' Day in Massachusetts and is a statewide holiday. (The battle actually occurred on the 19th of April, but we have moved all our holidays to the nearest preceding Monday to create three-day weekends.)

One other relevant thing about April 15th in America is that it is the day personal income taxes are due. Remember they threw the tea into the harbor because of the taxes under the Tea Act

Also on this day, the Titanic sank and Lincoln was shot. Though...I don't suppose those would be quite as relevant.

[Azuma Denton]

At Least 2 Dead After Boston Marathon Explosions — Twitter Reacts After News of Blasts at Finish Line
Oh God, it's horrible...

[ganbaru]

Boston Police chief says no known threat before explosions
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/...93E16I20130415

London race security under review after Boston blasts
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/...93E18020130415

Boston Marathon explosions
http://www.reuters.com/article/inter...e=domesticNews