The Glade 4.0

Associated Press

Someone claims responsibility

Initial report

I'm a little surprised that this hasn't gotten more press play.. but then again, maybe I'm not.

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"Hysterical children shrieking about right-wing anything need to go sit in the corner and be quiet while the adults are talking."

You mean, Western press, or here? It happened on a Sunday night (their Monday morning), so it was kind of out of the cycle. Plus, I think most people don't particularly pay attention to Russia anymore (which pisses them off no end).

And, the Russians themselves didn't seem to pay much attention - life went on pretty much as normal, people not affected directly just shrugged and went about their business.

Many Russians have a certain attitude toward death, really, that can be quite stoic and jarring at times. That comes from seeing a lot of it, I guess.

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This cold and dark tormented hell
Is all I`ll ever know
So when you get to heaven
May the devil be the judge

Press here in the U.S.

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"Hysterical children shrieking about right-wing anything need to go sit in the corner and be quiet while the adults are talking."

It's received some, but yeah, nowhere near as much as I would expect. Perhaps we're being careful not to savagely poke the victim with the media stick telling the world that trying to avoid the terrorism issue doesn't work.

Doesn't compare in scale to the World Trade Center attack, but yeah, the terrorists are hitting anyone, anywhere they want, with relative impunity - except here anymore. Maybe we aren't wanting to say that either and raise the USA up as a target.

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The U. S. Constitution doesn't guarantee happiness, only the pursuit of it. You have to catch up with it yourself. B. Franklin

"A mind needs books like a sword needs a whetstone." -- Tyrion Lannister, A Game of Thrones

I think we just have too much information going on. The thing about press coverage, even more so than in the past, is that if it doesn't have a local angle, no one's going to be particularly interested. The only local angle coming out of this was that U.S. authorities put the NY and DC subways on heightened alert. The only other thing of interest to American readers is that this raises the possibility that Russia will strike back, crack down, or otherwise go off the deep end - confirming our suspicions about inherent flaws in the Russian character that lead them toward dictatorship and undemocratic practices.

I read up on it, there was lots available. But for much of it, you had to go Russian websites.

_________________
This cold and dark tormented hell
Is all I`ll ever know
So when you get to heaven
May the devil be the judge

We're already a target. I think it's more that people don't want to admit anyone but the U.S. (and to a certain degree our allies) is a target. I don't think they're hitting anyone or anywhere they want with impunity; it's just a matter of out of so many attempts a certain number will succeed. I would grant that they have an easier time than here.

I think the real reason is that the media doesn't want to publicize attacks on anyone who isn't the U.S. or a U.S. ally. That would point out that terrorism exists for reasons other than hatred of/anger with America/the West.

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"Hysterical children shrieking about right-wing anything need to go sit in the corner and be quiet while the adults are talking."

Partially that, yeah. In some ways, the point is that recognizing the Russian susceptibility to terrorism might also underscore that they're basically in the same boat as us - they've been dealing with crazed Islamists in Afghanistan since the late 1970s. And that might undermine the whole Cold War narrative that we've constructed around Russia/Soviet Union.

Plus it's such a thorny, protracted issue that it's hard for Americans to understand, in a 2-minute news clip or 6-inch article, why the Russians would have trouble with a Muslim population. Heck, ask any random American what percentage of Russia's population is Muslim, and they'd either give you the deer-in-the-headlights look; say "100%?"; or shrug and say, "Who cares?" (without looking it up, I think it's about 10%). (Hah! I still got it - Wikipedia says, between "10-15%".)

In some ways, it's actually harder for Muslims in Russia to carry out something like this - anyone with dark skin or a woman who wears a veil is immediately suspect, and likely to get randomly hassled on the street by the militia, or your local skinheads. It was bad enough in the mid-90s, I can't imagine what it's like now.

_________________
This cold and dark tormented hell
Is all I`ll ever know
So when you get to heaven
May the devil be the judge

Ding ding!

Wait, we're surprised the Librul Media that's been trying to push "if we'd stay out of the Middle East, they wouldn't attack us" and "our involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan is only helping the recruiters" agendas are ignoring terrorist attacks on a non-American ally?

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"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades