Overpass Light Brigade
A small roundup of ongoing Boston related events and commentary. Yes, most of the "commentary" is insane, but I presume nobody here expected any different. Sorry.
- Missing Brown student Sunil Tripathi was mistakenly identified by some in the public last week as being one of the two bombing suspects. He wasn't. There may yet be worse news, now; Providence police say that a body found in the Providence River may be Tripathi; they are currently awaiting confirmation from the medical examiner's office. The body was found by the coach of Brown's rowing team.
- The real Suspect 1, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, turns out to be a fan of Alex Jones' conspiracy-peddling site, Infowars. Jones was among the very first to publicly opine that the bombing smelled, like everything else Jones smells, like a government conspiracy. Now he says that this is a conspiracy, too:
“The federal government trying to connect me to tragedies. That’s the media and the government’s own conspiracy theories.” Jones compared the situation to when Richard Andrew Poplawski, a Pittsburgh man who killed three police officers in 2009, was shown to be a conspiracy theorist who frequently visited the Infowars website.
Or maybe your site is just very popular with crazy, potentially violent people. Occam's Machete, and all that.
- I'm lobbying for a new rule that says we don't have to talk about New Hampshire state legislators, ever. There's hundreds of them, and apparently every last one of them is a total nutcase. This one doesn't just think the Boston bombing was done "by our own Government", she posted a note on Glenn Beck's Facebook page citing Alex Jones, so that's the Axis of Batshittery, right there.
- The pressure cooker guy. Yeah, him. He's the same Tennessee lawmaker who was last seen proposing that we make welfare for poor children contingent on their school grades—finish that book report or you don't eat tonight, kids!—so being an asshole seems to be a particular calling for him.
- While we're on the subject of total crackpots, I'm still not certain why Charles Krauthammer continues to enjoy publication, having devolved into an apparent whiskey fog that has lasted ten years now. He's currently pissed off that in the wake of the Boston bombing, Obama is not hating on the Muslims more. Yes, that is what passes for bold conservative thinking nowadays.
- Well, that was unpleasant. All right, let's end on a better note. The man who found the younger Tsarnaev brother on his boat says he doesn't want a new boat, thanks—but he has a better idea where well-wishers can send their money:
Henneberry is aware of a growing social media movement to buy him a boat to replace the Slip Away II, but he does not want it.
"It makes me feel wonderful that people that are thinking like that, but it is my boat. People lost lives and lost limbs. I'd rather that (the money) go to the One Fund Boston. To buy me a new boat is a wonderful thing, I don't want that really. I would wish that they donate it to the One Fund Boston. They lost limbs. I lost a boat," he said.
"Slip Away is slipping away. But I say it did its job. It held a bad guy and is going away like a Viking ship."