terrorism

Non-terrorist harpsichordist demands apology from the MBTA

adamg — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 16:30:57 -0400

Geoff Edgers talks to one of those guys detained at Logan despite not being a terrorist, and now he's vowing to fight the T over the whole mess. The T basically says: Tough, that's the price of freedom in a post-9/11 world.

Earlier:
The man who wasn't a terrorist.

Does Homeland Security know about this?

adamg — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 10:46:31 -0500

If you do something stupid like stand in front of the Federal Reserve Bank in this post-9/11 world and aim a camera at the building, don't be surprised if some angry federale leaps out at you and demands you stop immediately. That's why God gave us Google Street View:

View Larger Map

Mark Baard has posted a bunch of Google Street View photos of local federal offices.

Earlier:
But where are the incriminating photos?

Watching the LNG tankers go by

adamg — Fri, 23 Mar 2007 08:47:33 -0400

Marilora lives close enough to the harbor to be able to take pictures of the giant LNG tankers from her bedroom window. So she takes great interest in reports on the damage a terrorist attack on one could do, like incinerating everybody within a one-mile radius:

Should I take comfort in the fact that I will probably just be incinerated instantly? ... I know that we need LNG and the terminals have to go somewhere, but to have one in such a populated area is just such a huge risk, especially considering the Homeland Security Department has basically done didly squat to protect our ports from the possibility of terrorist attacks. ...

Our terror envy

adamg — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 08:52:43 -0400

Rob Bellinger ponders last week's Phoenix front page o' doom (in which the immolation of the entire waterfront at the hands of a jihadi blowing up an LNG tanker is gleefully described) and other indications of our terrorism obsession and he wonders:

... As Boston tries to find its terror target significance, I have to wonder: is it envy or is it really just guilt? Perhaps a mix of both.

Ed. note: At least when it comes to the Phoenix, Rob underestimates the fact that some reporters and editors just LOVE working on stories about things that go boom. In college, I did a similar cover story analyzing in great detail what would happen should a cement truck lose its brakes on the hill down to the train tracks that bisected the campus just as a freight train carrying deadly chemicals was speeding through the crossing - complete with a giant red bullseye map showing exactly which parts of the campus would be turned into dead zones. Yes, it's been downhill for me ever since.

Who's attaching circuit boards to our bridges?

adamg — Wed, 31 Jan 2007 13:20:14 -0500

Update: The Globe and Channel 4 now report that officials are finding these things all over the place. Storrow Drive is shut down. The Red Line is shut down between Park Street and Kendall.

On a morning when the lead story in the Globe announced the T's new random-bag inspections have turned up nothing, the Sullivan Square T stop and I-93 both get shut down so police could blow up a suspicious device found on a girder above the station. The Globe quotes a guy who ran toward the station to see what all the commotion was about:

"It was nerve racking," said Robert A. Ellington, 29, who ran to Sullivan Square to investigate when he heard whirl of television news helicopters. "It's scary, but exciting though."

Private Idaho reports:

So a friend of the family, Christie called my wife at home to say "Please help! my cell phone is running out of power and they've closed the subway and I'm stuck somewhere called Wellington Station!!! Can you come get me?" ...

Kimberly wound up walking to work because the buses got so overcrowded:

... It's only about 3 miles but crossing the bridge with the wind off the Harbor is a bit much but I trucked it and feel great! I should keep it up, an extra 3 to 6 miles a day would do wonders plus my daily workout. ...

Question of the day: If you are going to bomb a subway station, why on earth would you pick Sullivan Square?!

Cindy and Jeff at SmartRoutes made it official: This morning was an eventful Wednesday.

Note: Channel 4 has the best photos so far of the thing in question.

If anyone can take pictures of turkeys, then the terrorists have won

adamg — Fri, 26 Jan 2007 17:00:29 -0500

Sushiesque reports a security guard at the federal Volpe transportation building ordered her to delete a photo she'd just taken of Mr. Gobbles, the wild turkey that hangs around there.

The photos they don't want you to see (by somebody else).

Isn't it illegal to dump things in the harbor now?

adamg — Tue, 21 Nov 2006 21:14:37 -0500

The Boston Tea Party for 9/11 Truth is an effort to call for a new inquiry into the supposed real story behind the 9/11 attacks, rather than continuing the "preposterous fiction" that a bunch of backward Arabs could topple the World Trade Center. On Dec. 16th, they will meet at Faneuil Hall:

... They will then march along the Freedom Trail, through Boston Common and Downtown Crossing to the original Tea Party site at the Seaport Ave. Bridge over Fort Point Channel, carrying crates containing copies of the 9/11 Commission Report. There, spokespersons will cast a larger-than-life size replica of the 9/11 Commission Report into Boston Harbor. The event will conclude with teams of 9/11 Patriots casting crates of 9/11 Reports into the harbor. ...

Participants are invited to wear Colonial garb:

... Bring a fife, drum, historical flag, hand held bells,

Signs, create your own signs - use colonial typefaces if you can - Caslon is a good one ...

Men with baby carriages come under scrutiny at South Station

adamg — Tue, 21 Nov 2006 19:47:03 -0500

Lino's Line watches today as a black-jumpsuited police officer interrogates a guy at South Station:

... The police man wanted to know what that man was doing there. He responded, "nothing." The policeman said that he had been observed sitting there with the baby carriage on two successive days. It seemed rather suspicious as why he would be there two days in a row. ...

Sheep on the T

adamg — Sun, 15 Oct 2006 22:24:39 -0400

Gary McGath ponders why nobody seems to be protesting the T's new random-search policy:

... It's bizarre, but many people trust the government simply because it is the government, because it tells them what to do. Maybe the explanation is that we're descended from apes who gained an evolutionary advantage by obeying the head ape.

Gary, meet Jeff:

... I'd like to speak up and voice my displeasure with this. I'd like to refuse to be searched. Maybe I'd like to "write to the top". Here's the problem with all of that, I don't think anyone at the MBTA cares. ...

Two dots that should be connected on the T?

adamg — Thu, 12 Oct 2006 09:30:36 -0400

BadTransit takes a look at the possible reasons for instituting random bag searches when there's no apparent imminent threat against local public transit. You'll be shocked to learn that politics might be involved. But not just a certain governor's bid to show how tough he is on ~~Godless heathens on subway trains~~ terrorists. Might T Police Chief Joseph Carter have had reason to institute searches now? Like, say, wanting to appear tough and decisive and stuff in front of the 30,000 police chiefs coming into Boston this weekend for the International Association of Chiefs of Police annual conference?

Spatch, meanwhile, thinks up an appropriate haiku.