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HalfMooner
Dingaling

Philippines
15831 Posts

Posted - 02/01/2007 :  11:36:44  Show Profile Send HalfMooner a Private Message
quote:
Two plead not guilty to Boston hoax charges


CHARLESTOWN, Massachusetts (CNN) -- Two men pleaded not guilty today to charges they created panic by placing "bomblike" electronic light boards displaying a cartoon character with an upraised middle finger throughout Boston. Assistant Attorney General John Grossman called the light boards "bomblike" devices and said that if they had been explosive they could have damaged infrastructure and transportation in the city.

[My emphasis.] And if they had been thermonuclear bombs, there'd be no Boston today!


These criminals would only answer questions about their hair,
but those realistic bombs were keeping mum.

Is there a rule these days that to have little authority, you have to be a moron?

Sorry. folks, it's real news like this that makes me stop writing fake news. Chases the Muse away. The funniest stuff really happens. Depressing to a parody writer!



Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive.

Edited by - HalfMooner on 02/01/2007 11:40:41

H. Humbert
SFN Die Hard

USA
4574 Posts

Posted - 02/01/2007 :  11:59:10   [Permalink]  Show Profile Send H. Humbert a Private Message
I'm not saying that what these guys did was exactly smart, considering they didn't have permission from the city to hang these signs, but in order to be found guilty of a bomb hoax, wouldn't they have had to have built something with the intention of having it mistook for a bomb? They built flashing signs--an electronic device, sure, but not exactly a bomb.

Or is it enough that someone reported the signs as possible bombs? If my neighbor calls the police and says I'm building a bomb in my backyard, and it turns out I was only fixing a lawn mower engine, would I be guilty of a "bomb hoax?" Then again, I guess even an empty paper bag could be considered a "bomb hoax" if accidently left in the wrong place.

I'm not sure how I feel about this. On the one hand, their actions clearly led to an inconvenience and expense to the city. On the other, I'm uncomfortable calling this a hoax since their was no intent to deceive.


"A man is his own easiest dupe, for what he wishes to be true he generally believes to be true." --Demosthenes

"The first principle is that you must not fool yourself - and you are the easiest person to fool." --Richard P. Feynman

"Face facts with dignity." --found inside a fortune cookie
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Dave W.
Info Junkie

USA
26020 Posts

Posted - 02/01/2007 :  12:04:13   [Permalink]  Show Profile  Visit Dave W.'s Homepage Send Dave W. a Private Message
quote:
Originally posted by HalfMooner

Is there a rule these days that to have little authority, you have to be a moron?
Sounds like the Peter Principle in action.

- Dave W. (Private Msg, EMail)
Evidently, I rock!
Why not question something for a change?
Visit Dave's Psoriasis Info, too.
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Dave W.
Info Junkie

USA
26020 Posts

Posted - 02/01/2007 :  12:11:43   [Permalink]  Show Profile  Visit Dave W.'s Homepage Send Dave W. a Private Message
quote:
Originally posted by H. Humbert

I'm not saying that what these guys did was exactly smart, considering they didn't have permission from the city to hang these signs, but in order to be found guilty of a bomb hoax, wouldn't they have had to have built something with the intention of having it mistook for a bomb?
According to the article:
Judge Paul K. Leary told Grossman that, according to law, the suspects must intend to create a panic to be charged with placing hoax devices.
So there you go.

Not only that:
[Ted] Turner said the devices have been in place for two or three weeks in Boston; New York City; Los Angeles, California; Chicago, Illinois; Atlanta, Georgia; Seattle, Washington; Portland, Oregon; Austin, Texas; San Francisco, California; and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
But only in Boston has there been a panic.

- Dave W. (Private Msg, EMail)
Evidently, I rock!
Why not question something for a change?
Visit Dave's Psoriasis Info, too.
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Ghost_Skeptic
SFN Regular

Canada
510 Posts

Posted - 02/01/2007 :  12:22:50   [Permalink]  Show Profile Send Ghost_Skeptic a Private Message
Everyone knows terorrists always put flashing lights on their bombs so they can find them easily in the dark.

"You can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink. / You can send a kid to college but you can't make him think." - B.B. King

History is made by stupid people - The Arrogant Worms

"The greater the ignorance the greater the dogmatism." - William Osler

"Religion is the natural home of the psychopath" - Pat Condell

"The day will come when the mystical generation of Jesus, by the supreme being as his father in the womb of a virgin, will be classed with the fable of the generation of Minerva in the brain of Jupiter" - Thomas Jefferson
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BigPapaSmurf
SFN Die Hard

3192 Posts

Posted - 02/01/2007 :  13:13:25   [Permalink]  Show Profile Send BigPapaSmurf a Private Message
Last bomb scare I had at my building was during a roe v wade rally at the State Capitol down the street, Someone reported a box out on the ledge by the entrance which was wrapped in duct tape and had wires sticking out of it, clearly designed to look like a bomb. They must have gotten spooked and dropped it in the street down at the corner, best part is some moron picked up the box and brought it over to the building and left it there, trying to help with the trash.

Of course when word spread all the other morons went over to the windows on that side of the building to see what they could see.

"...things I have neither seen nor experienced nor heard tell of from anybody else; things, what is more, that do not in fact exist and could not ever exist at all. So my readers must not believe a word I say." -Lucian on his book True History

"...They accept such things on faith alone, without any evidence. So if a fraudulent and cunning person who knows how to take advantage of a situation comes among them, he can make himself rich in a short time." -Lucian critical of early Christians c.166 AD From his book, De Morte Peregrini
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HalfMooner
Dingaling

Philippines
15831 Posts

Posted - 02/01/2007 :  14:29:28   [Permalink]  Show Profile Send HalfMooner a Private Message
H.H., you're not all wrong. But the most these guys should be charged with would be the violation of some advertising ordinance -- a minor misdemeanor at worst. Or maybe a fine for Turner Entertainment.

But, IMHO, a reasonable person would never mistake those things for bombs, and it's ridiculous to think someone would use 'em to scare people. I suspect someone at the DA's saw The Finger and just got mad about that, and tried to use the terrorism-scare climate to propel the case. Idiots AND assholes.

"Banned in Boston" long ago used to be a badge of honor that plays or books would display prominently. Maybe it will be so again.


Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive.
Edited by - HalfMooner on 02/01/2007 14:30:49
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Original_Intent
SFN Regular

USA
609 Posts

Posted - 02/02/2007 :  08:11:15   [Permalink]  Show Profile Send Original_Intent a Private Message
Stupid idiots, all the way around......

First, they put these things in public places on transportation hubs. I would not be upset about a lightbright that was working (although the display was not appropriate for the public at large IMHO), but what if it stopped working and just looked like a box with wires?

It is just plan stupid and ludicrous to do these things. Thankfully noone was hurt in a panic, and noone in public safety seems to have been injured in reslvingit.

Thankfully the judge hasn't lost his head.

I think if I was the mayor, I would not have drawn so much attention to it. The most important questions over the whole thingis why it took so long to notice them, and what do you change to make sure that it dosen't take so long again?

Peace
Joe
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marfknox
SFN Die Hard

USA
3739 Posts

Posted - 02/02/2007 :  19:28:27   [Permalink]  Show Profile  Visit marfknox's Homepage  Send marfknox an AOL message Send marfknox a Private Message
Fucking irrationally paranoid society we Americans now live in. My sister-in-law voted for Bush 2 years ago because she was afraid of terrorism; she lives in a suburb of Dayton, Ohio (practically the middle of nowhere)! The odds of being killed or injured by a terrorist attack even if you live in NYC is incredibly low compared to the odds of dying in a car crash or getting cancer, or being the victim of some regular type of crime.

And, gee, I think we have a hell of a lot more important people than these jokers to blame for spreading this particular kind of irrational paranoia and proneness-to-panic in our country.

"Too much certainty and clarity could lead to cruel intolerance" -Karen Armstrong

Check out my art store: http://www.marfknox.etsy.com

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Neurosis
SFN Regular

USA
675 Posts

Posted - 02/02/2007 :  20:46:46   [Permalink]  Show Profile  Send Neurosis an AOL message Send Neurosis a Private Message
Why do people assume everything is a bomb? I probably wouldn't assume a bomb is a bomb, then again I can see the line that seperates the silver screen and the real world when I get up to leave the theater.

Facts! Pssh, you can prove anything even remotely true with facts.
- Homer Simpson

[God] is an infinite nothing from nowhere with less power over our universe than the secretary of agriculture.
- Prof. Frink

Lisa: Yes, but wouldn't you rather know the truth than to delude yourself for happiness?
Marge: Well... um.... [goes outside to jump on tampoline with Homer.]
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Randy
SFN Regular

USA
1990 Posts

Posted - 02/02/2007 :  23:11:55   [Permalink]  Show Profile Send Randy a Private Message
Suppose we'll be seeing the two of them on the talk show circuit now. Jay Leno, Letterman....Oprah will want to do a make-over on the Rasta dude.

"We are all connected; to each other biologically, to the earth chemically, to the rest of the universe atomically."

"So you're made of detritus [from exploded stars]. Get over it. Or better yet, celebrate it. After all, what nobler thought can one cherish than that the universe lives within us all?"
-Neil DeGrasse Tyson
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Neurosis
SFN Regular

USA
675 Posts

Posted - 02/03/2007 :  02:03:27   [Permalink]  Show Profile  Send Neurosis an AOL message Send Neurosis a Private Message
Shouldn't adult swim, cartoon network, and/or turner answer for this before the hired guys?

Facts! Pssh, you can prove anything even remotely true with facts.
- Homer Simpson

[God] is an infinite nothing from nowhere with less power over our universe than the secretary of agriculture.
- Prof. Frink

Lisa: Yes, but wouldn't you rather know the truth than to delude yourself for happiness?
Marge: Well... um.... [goes outside to jump on tampoline with Homer.]
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filthy
SFN Die Hard

USA
14408 Posts

Posted - 02/03/2007 :  04:21:45   [Permalink]  Show Profile Send filthy a Private Message
Here's an update on it:
quote:
Boston Scare Case Could Be Hard to Prove

By MARK JEWELL
The Associated Press
Friday, February 2, 2007; 6:31 PM

BOSTON -- Some legal experts say prosecutors will have a hard time proving that two men intended to cause a scare when they planted blinking electronic devices around Boston in a publicity stunt for a cartoon show.

They say the key difficulties prosecutors face are demonstrating that the men intended to cause fear, and that the devices, which depict a cartoon character, looked dangerous. The state must prove both to win felony convictions for placing a hoax device, the experts said.

Is it mere cooincedence that this article was penned by one Mr. Jewell? I think not! The whole thing smacks of dark conspiricy....




"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)

"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres


"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude

Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,

and Crypto-Communist!

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Dude
SFN Die Hard

USA
6891 Posts

Posted - 02/03/2007 :  08:58:24   [Permalink]  Show Profile Send Dude a Private Message
I was laughing SOOOOOO hard when I watched the Boston bomb squad blow one of these things up.

I immediately recognized it as an ATHF cartoon character.

The people of Boston are obviously not safe, because the people in charge there are retards.

Seriously, what kind of terrorist would make a bomb, then put a sign with 50 LEDs on top of it? If the intent is to blow shit up and kill a few people, your plan depends on the device not being noticed.

Glad I don't live in Boston.


Ignorance is preferable to error; and he is less remote from the truth who believes nothing, than he who believes what is wrong.
-- Thomas Jefferson

"god :: the last refuge of a man with no answers and no argument." - G. Carlin

Hope, n.
The handmaiden of desperation; the opiate of despair; the illegible signpost on the road to perdition. ~~ da filth
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HalfMooner
Dingaling

Philippines
15831 Posts

Posted - 02/03/2007 :  09:15:55   [Permalink]  Show Profile Send HalfMooner a Private Message
It's not only going to be hard for the prosecution to prove that those signs were meant to scare people, it's going to be hard for a jury to even imagine it. In fact, it might be hard for both jury and judge to keep straight faces, and not to burst out in laughter.

In nine out of the ten cities where these were placed, no problem. In Boston, the brave police themselves panic (after apparently hallucinating) and shut down major transportation. I suspect the only reason the prosecutors are carrying on with this is that they have a tiger by the tail and can't let go, because that would be admitting their stupidity. But they should have dropped it earlier; it's going to be even worse for them in court. They are now like kids caught lying, telling ever bigger whoppers in a vicious circle to cover up.

I predict some early retirements. Crazy. But very, very funny.


Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive.
Edited by - HalfMooner on 02/03/2007 09:22:39
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Ricky
SFN Die Hard

USA
4907 Posts

Posted - 02/03/2007 :  13:16:14   [Permalink]  Show Profile  Send Ricky an AOL message Send Ricky a Private Message
From filthy's update:

quote:
Safety officials, however, have praised the response as evidence of the city's ability to respond quickly to a crisis.

"The coordinated response by all departments proves the system we have in place works," Mayor Thomas Menino said.


Mayor Menino should be given a medal for being the most able to keep a straight face while uttering something ridiculous.

Why continue? Because we must. Because we have the call. Because it is nobler to fight for rationality without winning than to give up in the face of continued defeats. Because whatever true progress humanity makes is through the rationality of the occasional individual and because any one individual we may win for the cause may do more for humanity than a hundred thousand who hug their superstitions to their breast.
- Isaac Asimov
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