stoush.net

I hope you’re being sarcastic. The threat of death from terrorism is as miniscule as ever. It’s absurd to be concerned for your friends over there because of some apparently-completely-incompetent, abortive, apparent-terror-attacks when they are in vastly more danger from any number of other things, such as 1. the weather 2. car accidents 3. street crime 4. alcohol related violence 5. global warming 6. faulty household wiring etc.

…seeing a policeman run from the building and throw a “belt-like” object into a cricket field.

What double standards. If you’re just a spectator you can get chucked out and fined these days if you do as much as drop a plastic beer cup over the fence.

alcohol related violence

Bah, that’s a moral-panic beatup by wowsers who don’t like poor people shouting, and in the English context, it’s a moral panic hundreds of years old. Given the choice, would you rather be assaulted incompetently by a drunk, or efficiently and soberly?

At it happens, I’ve only ever been assaulted by a drunk. Or, I should say, by drunks. I have never been assaulted by a terrorist.

I have seen people suffer and die from cancer, and from drink. I have never seen anyone suffer and die from terrorism. Of course, people do, but it is a much lesser problem. Terrorism is a politically useful and spectacular issue and that’s why the media and government have a joint interest in aiding terrorism by making us all terrified of it.

Mark, how heartless. If nothing else, my concern for my friends is very genuine. It is not absurd from my view.

I’m sorry to be hearltess, but the delusional irrationality of people towards the threat of ‘terrorism’ is a major force behind most of the really bad shit happening in the world today, and I can’t think of anything more important than denouncing it.? You’re being a tool of the state and media. There’s no clear evidence that anyone was in any immediate danger from all this – certainly no-one’s been hurt who hasn’t also been arrested. For all we know there are much more efficient terrorists planning attacks in Sydney right now.

All this ‘terror alert’ shit put out by the Brown government, which basically means that because of what has happened more is expected, is bullshit. It’s far more likely that the ‘terrorists’ have shot their wad on a premature abortive assault. This is exactly the bullshit we’ve had since September 11. The attack happened and we were told to brace for more attacks. The security apparatus went into overdrive, and remains in overdrive, but the follow-up attacks have never materialised. This might be because of heightened security, or it might not. But there is no reason to expect that more attacks will come in waves after earlier attacks – near-simultaneous strikes have happened (as apparently on this occasion), but there’s simply no empirical evidence for ‘heightened threat’ alerts.

let me get this straight:

you can’t think of anything more important than denouncing me for expressing the hope that friends of mine are safe and well.

I think you’ve tipped over the edge right there.

i’m aware of the fact that i and my friends would be hopelessly unlucky to be in the same city as a terrorist incident, let alone fall victim to terrorism, but when bombs went off in kings cross station a couple of years ago and i had a mate who caught the train along that line to work, i was pretty nervous (understatement award for me!) and especially when i was desperately trying to call and email with little success.

all that said, michael pascoe in Crikey writes of the complete lack of reaction from financial markets to the latest incidents:

While the politicians make their speeches and individual tragedies await, our extremely adaptable species has adjusted to the random threat of smallish bombs in our cities and is getting on with life – and business.

people get that they’re not likely to be blown up anytime, and people aren’t stopping themselves from doing things in our cities and towns, but they still wish their friends well when something happens nearby. there’s nothing gullible about that, it’s just part of being human.

Well, nothing more important proportional to the effort involved, although you mischaracterise my intervention in any case – I’m not complaining about you wishing your friends are safe and well. I’m complaining about you doing it in a way that implies that your friends are significantly endangered by terrorism. I should say that certain things may mitigate my disapprobation here, such as if you have friends in Glasgow, who might be travelling through Glasgow airport, and/or if this blog is the major line of communication you have with such people.

Does it strike you as at all strange though that you are expressing this hope now, when there is no indication that anyone other than arrested alleged terrorists are not safe and well as a result of alleged terrorism when you didn’t before, say when floods ravaged Northern England ? Apologies again if your friends are in Glasgow and/or are alleged terrorists.

There’s no clear evidence that anyone was in any immediate danger from all this – certainly no-one’s been hurt who hasn’t also been arrested.

that’s simply not true - you reckon cars full of gas tanks, petrol and nails weren’t a likely cause of injury? driving a 4wd into an airport terminal, whether on fire or not, is likely to injure and the people there are very lucky. setting the whole thing alight means only more so. they’re not sure that there weren’t other explosives in the vehicle that didn’t go off.

you don’t resist the irrational fear campaigns around terrorism very effectively by ignoring what incidents really occur. you resist them by saying at once that you want neither car bombs nor the war on terror, and just get on with life.

I’m not complaining about you wishing your friends are safe and well. I’m complaining about you doing it in a way that implies that your friends are significantly endangered by terrorism.

my mate was getting the train to work in that neighbourhood so he was as you say ‘significantly endagered’.

So, how’s about them jihadi doctors?

One in Queensland, too.

Clearly poverty and oppression are not at the roots of this terror movement. We face a global battle against an expansionist, totalitarian ideology – that of militant Islam.

Guess what – they’re the enemies of everyone who posts on this blog, even the useful fools who prefer to deny th threat.

One of them’s only assisting with enquiries so far, Evil. But yeah, who’d have thought something interesting would happen in Brisbane?

Clearly poverty and oppression are not at the roots of this terror movement. We face a global battle against an expansionist, totalitarian ideology – that of militant Islam.

Agree point one without question, reject point two with a chuckle, slide whistle and snare-drum. Frrroooom-tish. I have to say, if its best and brightest can’t manage to start a fuel-air combustion explosion with half-a-dozen goes, how effective are they going to be if they ever get to the conventional stage of Maoist insurgency? They’re an embarrassment to terrorism. The old guard of the IRA, Baader-Meinhof and Red Brigades would be spinning in their graves.

It’s good to see that kitten face again, by the way. I really should update the guts of this site in anticipation of the Federal Election.

seconding an OMFG Federal Election makeover! let me know if you need any help with grunt work.

Yes, seriously. Trackback, please?

Liam, when I said it was a global battle, I meant global.

The doofuses in Glasgow might be a joke, but the ones in London a couple of years ago weren’t. Nor are the Islamic fanatics in Iraq, Afghanistan, Thailand, Sudan, Indonesia or many other places. The big picture is not represented by one failed attack.

It’s good to be stoushing again!