Hysteria in Boston – Thy name is Ted Turner

January 31, 2007



Feel free to read my original rant – below. BUT this issue was the fault of Turner Broadcasting (according to Boston.com).

BREAKING NEWS: Turner Broadcasting is expected to issue an apology for causing today’s series of bomb scares throughout Boston. A statement emailed to the Globe from Turner Broadcasting said: “The ‘packages’ in question are magnetic lights that pose no danger. They are part of an outdoor marketing campaign in 10 cities in support of Adult Swim‚Äôs animated television show Aqua Teen Hunger Force. They have been in place for two to three weeks in Boston, New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Atlanta, Seattle, Portland, Austin, San Francisco, and Philadelphia. Parent company Turner Broadcasting is in contact with local and federal law enforcement on the exact locations of the billboards. We regret that they were mistakenly thought to pose any danger.”

ORIGINAL RANT STARTS HERE>>>>>>>>>>

I might turn this into a Bowl of Cheese podcast episode, but I wanted to toss it up online for the news-starved populace.

It seems that someone or someones have been placing packages around the Metro-Boston area under bridges and in high-traffic areas to disrupt the lives or local residents. That’s the simplified version.

I’m guessing that the packages – so far deemed benign by the police department and related tactical units – are an effort to raise our awareness of how simple it could be to harm people. In fact, on a recent Popular Science podcast from the Moon, the host of the show interviewed a terrorism expert who commented on how idiotic our efforts at airports have been.

This gentleman said that if we think that taking off our shoes is going to make us safer on a plane, then we’ve got far larger fish to fry. He pointed out that terrorism isn’t the actual act of violence, but the theft of our freedom in any form.

If we start to worry about packages under bridges, shoe bombers on planes, assassins at major sporting events like the Super Bowl or World Series, then we’re probably looking in the wrong place.

Just by killing ten people in a crowded mall, a terror organization could panic the entire country. By shooting a few athletes at a college basketball game, we’d probably become a virtual police state. And by taking a bus full of kids hostage in any town in the United States, terror organizations would have us so panicked we might finally take our liberties seriously.

I’m in favor of a fence around the United States, but I’m a realist too. Let’s inject some common sense into our protection. Let’s all keep our eyes open, treat each other with respect. And let everyone live in peace.

Maybe then we could do the same and get some of our freedom back.