bomb alerts and stuff

Message Bookmarked

Bookmark Removed

Not all messages are displayed: show all messages (1366 of them)

But.. both Bush and Blair were re-elected, quite comfortably, following the invasion of Iraq, when the electorate were aware of the aftermath and the deceptions leading up to it. They *are* acting according to popular wishes, it would seem.

― PJ Miller (PJ Miller 68), Wednesday, 3 August 2005 10:04 (twenty years ago)

Let me put it this way. Politicians have vastly more power than terrorists. With great power comes great responsibility and great accountability. If Microsoft dominates 97% of all the computers in the world, and suddenly there's a horribly destructive virus made by hackers, and it wipes everyone's data, it is more Microsoft's fault than the hackers'. It's Microsoft's fault because they have a monopoly and forced everyone to use the same software, and for overlooking a loophole in their software, and for framing the whole basic context. And yes, it's also the hackers' fault, and the idiot lemmings who all bought Microsoft products. But mainly it's Microsoft. The terrorism situation at the moment is a response to the US being a kind of monopoly, the "last remaining superpower" after the disappearance of the Soviet Union.

― Momus (Momus), Wednesday, 3 August 2005 10:08 (twenty years ago)

"The terrorism situation at the moment is a response to the US being a kind of monopoly, the "last remaining superpower" after the disappearance of the Soviet Union."

you think? so not a response to israel/iraq at all? these terrorists are all *really* lamenting the decline of the organized left. if only they could see the still glowing light of russian communism and leave out all the theocratic dogmatism (oh hang on no, maybe there is a kind of affinity here) they could be genuine anti-imperialists... this has been a george galloway dream.

― N_RQ, Wednesday, 3 August 2005 10:14 (twenty years ago)

You know as well as I do the connection between the US and Israel: without US support there would be no Israel, basically.

And you know as well as I do that there's no connection between Bin Laden and the "organised left": before he was fighting the US he was fighting the USSR.

― Momus (Momus), Wednesday, 3 August 2005 10:15 (twenty years ago)

yes, that what i meant -- many of the causes adduced (eg israel) predate US monopoly (a fiction anyway). bin laden may have hated the left but there is a current among galloway's supporters that upholds the iraqi resistance as an anti-imperialist force (tariq ali: 'iraq is arabic for vietnam').

― N_RQ, Wednesday, 3 August 2005 10:21 (twenty years ago)

there is a current among galloway's supporters that upholds the iraqi resistance as an anti-imperialist force

Well, that's like saying hackers are fighting monopolies when they make a virus that exploits a loophole in Internet Explorer. It is and isn't true.

― Momus (Momus), Wednesday, 3 August 2005 10:23 (twenty years ago)

Young person cleared after all:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/essex/4741965.stm

― PJ Miller (PJ Miller 68), Wednesday, 3 August 2005 11:48 (twenty years ago)

re germany's alledgedly clean hands -- this is quite interesting

― N_RQ, Wednesday, 3 August 2005 13:04 (twenty years ago)

Relax, kids - I saw a honky getting stop and searched.

I think they were taking people's names and addresses. I can't think why, unless it is to write to them and apologise for the inconvenience.

― PJ Miller (PJ Miller 68), Thursday, 4 August 2005 06:52 (twenty years ago)

wow, there were about 8 5-0 at friggin' great portland street! god knows how many at, like, bank.

― N_RQ, Thursday, 4 August 2005 07:21 (twenty years ago)

i love that 66% thing!

33% said the PM bears "a lot of responsibility" for the attacks
31% said he bears "a little" responsibility
28% said his decision was "not responsible"

those 31% in the middle is a little vague, to say the least.. i mean

"people were asked to what extent, if at all, the game 'grand theft auto' was responsible for the bombings"

5% said GTA bears "a lot of responsibility" for the attacks
55% said GTA bears "a little" responsibility
20% said GTA was not responsible

OH MY GOD TWO THIRDS SAY GRAND THEFT AUTO IS LINKED TO THE IRAQ WAR!

― ken c (ken c), Thursday, 4 August 2005 07:35 (twenty years ago)

that silly young girl is quite cute. i wonder if we had ever met in islington, north london while she was being a waitress.

― ken c (ken c), Thursday, 4 August 2005 07:38 (twenty years ago)

i still wonder what happened to her friend who dialed 999

― ken c (ken c), Thursday, 4 August 2005 07:39 (twenty years ago)

there weren't any more than normal at ravenscourt park but then 'normal' is 3 these days and it is a titchy station. (OO guage!)

― koogs (koogs), Thursday, 4 August 2005 07:46 (twenty years ago)

i saw the orange juice girl today, ken.

― N_RQ, Thursday, 4 August 2005 07:49 (twenty years ago)

awww isn't she the best?

― ken c (ken c), Thursday, 4 August 2005 07:52 (twenty years ago)

always smiling, saying "fresh orange juuuuuuus" and sometimes juggling an orange. it's love.

― ken c (ken c), Thursday, 4 August 2005 07:53 (twenty years ago)

You can't juggle one orange, Ken. You can just jiggle it about in a playful manner.

― PJ Miller (PJ Miller 68), Thursday, 4 August 2005 08:32 (twenty years ago)

oh that's what she did then in that case, delightfully. If the orange juice wasn't quite so expensive I'd even have bought some.

― ken c (ken c), Thursday, 4 August 2005 09:26 (twenty years ago)

Harold Wilson chose (very wisely) not to enter the Vietnam War

A fact which seems to have been airbrushed out of history, along with the fact that Thatcher, of all people, condemned the US invasion of Grenada.

And what did the British Left have to say about Wilson's refusal of LBJ's request for British troops to be sent to Vietnam? Why they savaged him for not condemning US intervention in Vietnam out of hand, of course! And marched up and down with banners denouncing him as a murderer!

― Vicious Cop Kills Gentle Fool (Dada), Thursday, 4 August 2005 09:35 (twenty years ago)

Germany has 2,200 troops in Afghanistan at the moment, for what it's worth.

― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Thursday, 4 August 2005 10:39 (twenty years ago)

The main reason Thatcher objected to the invasion of Grenada was that Reagan didn't ask her permission first.

― Forest Pines (ForestPines), Thursday, 4 August 2005 10:44 (twenty years ago)

The Catholics were the Muslims of 1605.

― N_RQ, Thursday, 4 August 2005 10:47 (twenty years ago)

The lead story on BBC News right now:

"Al-Qaeda 'blames Blair for bombs': Osama Bin Laden's lieutenant warns London faces more attacks because of Tony Blair's policies."

Very cunning, the same "either with us or against us" tactic Bush used after 9/11. Now people like me can't argue any connection without being accused of parrotting Al Qaeda. They ruined the last US election by doing the same thing to Kerry's program.

Well, it might make a change from being told (cf. Henry upthread) you're parrotting George Galloway / Saddam Hussein. So there you go, it's official: now anyone making any link between Blair's bombs and suicide bombs is "on their side" and "against us".

― Momus (Momus), Thursday, 4 August 2005 13:18 (twenty years ago)

poor old kerry, eh? staunchly anti-war kerry, friend of peaceniks everywhere. i'm not saying you're pro-AQ momus; if you'll recall i said that merely because you said anyone who thinks there's more to this than iraq is parroting straw.

― N_RQ, Thursday, 4 August 2005 13:28 (twenty years ago)

So have they claimed responsibility? Or is he just, erm, hijacking events for his own blether?

― PJ Miller (PJ Miller 68), Thursday, 4 August 2005 13:38 (twenty years ago)

The "parroting Straw" remark came because you said "What about the Egypt bombs?" as a way to divert attention from the connection between the UK bombs and Iraq, just as Jack Straw did. That's more specific than "There's more to this than Iraq", which is clearly the case, and which I admit when I talk about Israel, or the status of the US as "hegemon", etc.

― Momus (Momus), Thursday, 4 August 2005 13:43 (twenty years ago)

israel, like egypt, is a 'cause' that predates the iraq invasion by decades, but funnily enough people bring up israel more often because the cause there -- that of the palestinians -- is more sympathetic among western liberals than the cause in egypt -- the insufficiently islamic government of a muslim country. why not bring up egypt, given the bombing there two weeks ago? it's not diverting attention, just demonstrating that the situation is complex.

― N_RQ, Thursday, 4 August 2005 13:49 (twenty years ago)

I thought talking about the US as "hegemon" was out.

I think they give people a receipt when they take their name and address.

― PJ Miller (PJ Miller 68), Friday, 5 August 2005 07:32 (twenty years ago)

hegemon is back. i blame green gartside.

― N_RQ, Friday, 5 August 2005 07:42 (twenty years ago)

I might have known that stringy-haired git was responsible.

― PJ Miller (PJ Miller 68), Friday, 5 August 2005 08:18 (twenty years ago)

Saudi Arabia officially warned Britain of an imminent terrorist attack on London just weeks ahead of the 7 July bombings after calls from one of al-Qaeda's most wanted operatives were traced to an active cell in the United Kingdom.

Senior Saudi security sources have confirmed they are investigating whether calls from Kareem al-Majati, last year named as one of al-Qaeda's chiefs in the Gulf kingdom, were made directly to the British ringleader of the 7 July bomb plotters.

Uh-oh.

― James Mitchell (James Mitchell), Sunday, 7 August 2005 00:39 (twenty years ago)

if true EITHER our security services dropped the ball OR there is another cell in which case OH SHIT WORST OF ALL our security services have yet to pick the ball up.

it's absolutely typical that the government concentrates on chucking out itinerant preachers and ignores the frickin terrorist NETWORK at large.

― Enrique, naked in an unfamiliar future where corporations run the world... (Enri, Sunday, 7 August 2005 11:38 (twenty years ago)

i had to look up the dictionary to find out what a hegemon was. i thought it was one of them cartoons with the cuddly pets.

― ken c (ken c), Sunday, 7 August 2005 15:25 (twenty years ago)

Hull City fans react to recent events:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/4130850.stm

Hegemon = Jamaican Worzel Gummidge

― PJ Miller (PJ Miller 68), Monday, 8 August 2005 12:30 (twenty years ago)

Football chants written by witty cunts shocker!

― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Monday, 8 August 2005 12:44 (twenty years ago)

The QPR fans should have sung back, "But at least we don't live in Hull"

― Vicious Cop Kills Gentle Fool (Dada), Monday, 8 August 2005 12:48 (twenty years ago)

As if Hull didn't look like a bombsite anyway, HEH

― Sociah T Azzahole (blueski), Monday, 8 August 2005 12:51 (twenty years ago)

whats this stuff about Haroon Rashid Aswat supposedly having previously(?) been a double agent, whats the deal with the oregon camps he's wanted for (how did he escape then?), and a supposed role at the behest of the brits in albania/kosovo circa 99?

― charltonlido (gareth), Monday, 8 August 2005 13:18 (twenty years ago)

i dunno, but it sounds very '24' season one.

― N_RQ, Monday, 8 August 2005 13:19 (twenty years ago)

How does one go about setting up a terrorist training camp in the state of Oregon? Granted, we Americans are not known for our brightness, but it seems like the kind of thing that would be difficult to miss.

― Mary (Mary), Tuesday, 9 August 2005 00:31 (twenty years ago)

Maybe they were going for the surreal. That's what all the news seems like nowadays.

― youn, Tuesday, 9 August 2005 01:56 (twenty years ago)

Police have launched an investigation after Queens Park Rangers fans were taunted about the London bombings.
The club's supporters were subjected to chants including, "You're just a town full of bombers" by Hull City fans.

but shouldn't that be to Leeds United, or Luton Town??

― ken c (ken c), Tuesday, 9 August 2005 09:31 (twenty years ago)

i don't know what charges the police can really put to the chanters though. "Being a twat" is an arrestable offence now?

― ken c (ken c), Tuesday, 9 August 2005 09:35 (twenty years ago)

I can understand why that has you in a panic, Ken.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Tuesday, 9 August 2005 11:27 (twenty years ago)

yeah who would i get to speak to if the rest of ilx get arrested?!??!?!?!?!?!

― ken c (ken c), Tuesday, 9 August 2005 11:29 (twenty years ago)

oh wait you mean i'm being arrestably twatty? woah handbags.

― ken c (ken c), Tuesday, 9 August 2005 11:34 (twenty years ago)

they've just sealed off a chunk of tottenham court road, from the boots to euston road, 50 policemen outside warren street station.

no one can get out of our building just now

― ken c (ken c), Thursday, 11 August 2005 09:06 (twenty years ago)

come again?

― N_RQ, Thursday, 11 August 2005 09:10 (twenty years ago)

but shouldn't that be to Leeds United, or Luton Town??

Aylesbury Town surely? Provided Aylesbury Town actually exist of course.

― Vicious Cop Kills Gentle Fool (Dada), Thursday, 11 August 2005 09:12 (twenty years ago)

Skipping 1266 messages at this point... Click here if you want to load them all.

You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.