And reflects no light
Like day for night
And I slip on it every time
Those are lyrics from a song called "The Ice of Boston" by a band called Dismemberment Plan. It's a song I like a lot, an amusing tale of a loser's New Year's Eve celebration in which he pours champagne over himself, talks to his mother and excoriates Gladys Knight and the Pips, roughly in that order.
If that seems like a nonsensical sequence of events, it's not a hell of a lot less sensical than what actually happened in Boston yesterday. We saw a single terrorist bring a metropolitan area with millions of people to a standstill. Does that trouble you? It should.
What should trouble you more is having people like this on the loose:
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| Miranda, Shmiranda |
We'll learn a lot more about Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, I'm sure. What we've learned about Lindsey Graham is that he seems to view the Bill of Rights as optional. Tsarnaev is an American citizen. He's quite likely a mass murderer, too. I would very much like to see him tried and convicted. But we have laws not only to proscribe behavior from individuals, but also from government. And while it pains me to say it, Lindsey Graham is a greater threat to the American way of life than Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.
We'll get to the shutdown of the city anon.
5 comments:
Agree 100% about Graham. And his fellow travelers on both sides of the aisle.
The shutdown of the city is certainly worth taking a critical look at. I can understand wanting to keep the streets clear when the suspect had already demonstrated a willingness and ability to engage in an open firefight and deploy explosives. Having had the rather unpleasant experience myself once of coming face to face with a SWAT team in the course of them clearing the building I was working in, I can definitely attest that you do NOT want to be in their way. (I'll also add that regardless of strongly you may feel about civil liberties or police militarization, in that particular scenario you may be surprised to find how eager you will be to do whatever the hell they ask.)
I can also see the logic of shutting down the MBTA and commuter rail, since that could have gotten him out to the country in very little time. But still, it is a hell of a message to send to anyone else bent on generating chaos in an American city.
In any case, the police did a fine job taking him alive. Armchair quarterbacking aside, the cops deserve all credit and praise for that.
That all makes good sense, both post and comment.
While it MAY be necessary to have thousands of black-clad domestic troops and armored vehicles stationed in a near-by bat cave, I would still appreciate that when called into action these troops didn't point guns at people, shove them for not raising their hands high enough when exiting a house, or cover their faces with balaclavas.
Someone was painstakingly trying to tell me that these security forces are really our friends and neighbors, folks we go to church with,etc. In which case, I'd like them to act like friends and neighbors.
I understand these troops are moving in a potentially dangerous situation; I believe it is incumbent upon them, however, to protect and serve. To be respectful, to have a weapon ready but not pointed at those you're dealing with. They are the ones with the body armor, the high-power weapons, the scores of ready back-ups moments away, they can sacrifice a modicum of security in favor of civility.
Graham views the law as optional in many ways--he isn't called "Grahamnesty" regarding his views on immigration law enforcement for nothing, after all.
What they should do is compel all incoming members of Congress to swear an oath to uphold the Constitution! :^)
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