# Addendum on Time Square Bombing **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [May 7, 2010, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/addendum-on-time-square-bombing/538580 "2010-05-07T02:08:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Rand\_Rover](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/db5fbb/32.png) [@Rand\_Rover](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rand_Rover)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2010, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/addendum-on-time-square-bombing/538580/21 "2010-05-07T02:55:38Z")
Here’s the SDMB thread where several folks opined that it was probably a right winger: vhttp://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=561766 Here’s a choice quote: > [@Frostillicus](#): > > Looks like Glenn Beck is gonna lose yet another viewer soon. ---
**Author:** ![Rand\_Rover](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/db5fbb/32.png) [@Rand\_Rover](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rand_Rover)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2010, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/addendum-on-time-square-bombing/538580/22 "2010-05-07T02:57:24Z")
> [@Hamlet](#): > > I am constantly confounded why anyone pays any attention whatsoever to Curtis and Rand. I like how you say that like he and I are bosom buddies or something. In reality, he thinks I will burn forever, and I think it’s sad he’s been deluded by his parents (and I hope he’s able to break out of it soon). ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2010, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/addendum-on-time-square-bombing/538580/23 "2010-05-07T03:06:58Z")
> [@Rand\_Rover](#): > > …In reality, he thinks I will burn forever… Oh, you’ll like Hell, **Rand**. Gated community. Very exclusive. ---
**Author:** ![Rand\_Rover](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/db5fbb/32.png) [@Rand\_Rover](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rand_Rover)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2010, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/addendum-on-time-square-bombing/538580/24 "2010-05-07T03:12:22Z")
Nah, they got teh black folks there . . . making me cross the street all the time . . . and shit . . . ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2010, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/addendum-on-time-square-bombing/538580/25 "2010-05-07T03:40:59Z")
Why are we not at threat level red? > [@](#): > > ``` > * [The United States government's national threat level](http://www.dhs.gov/files/programs/Copy_of_press_release_0046.shtm) is Elevated, or Yellow. > * For all domestic and international flights, the U.S. threat level is High, or Orange. See the Transportation Security > > ``` Why are not the east coast airports closed, or at least the banks and post offices along the southern shore of lake Erie? If Bush were still president, there’d be some sort of shit like that to let us know this threat was _serious_. Does Obama want us to stop hyperventilating as a nation? The resultant decrease in exhaled CO[sub]2[/sub] could lead to a new ice age! That’d be _serious!_ For our nation’s sake, we must continue to panic! ---
**Author:** ![Princhester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2010, 3:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/addendum-on-time-square-bombing/538580/26 "2010-05-07T03:42:53Z")
The islamist terrorists to date have used highly viable devices. A very large percentage of them have been devastating. Those that haven’t gone off have been basically viable but thankfully had minor faults. The Times Square bomb didn’t suffer a minor technical hitch, it was utterly non-viable. It appeared to have been the work of an ignorant idiot with no apparent knowledge or training. Consequently it was in my view a rational guess that the perp would be a local nutcase rather than an islamist terrorist. As it turns out, it seems the perp seems to have been an islamist terrorist. Sometimes rational best guesses turn out to be wrong. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2010, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/addendum-on-time-square-bombing/538580/27 "2010-05-07T04:04:31Z")
> [@Curtis LeMay](#): > > Rush Limbaugh didn’t blame hippies when the 1993 WTC bombings happened for God’s sake. I don’t know if he did or not. He did say that the accused Times Square bomber is a [registered Democrat](http://mediamatters.org/research/201005050022). (Hint: he’s not.) I wonder if that’s what prompted Curtis to start this thread; say that the left is throwing around accusations as a means of advance damage-control for Rush. ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2010, 4:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/addendum-on-time-square-bombing/538580/28 "2010-05-07T04:09:01Z")
> [@Curtis LeMay](#): > > Don’t veer off-topic. Anyways I’ve finished my necessary homework and will get off soon anyways. Do be sure to turn your webcam off first. ---
**Author:** ![emacknight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/3ec8ea/32.png) [@emacknight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/emacknight)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2010, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/addendum-on-time-square-bombing/538580/29 "2010-05-07T04:21:01Z")
> [@Rand\_Rover](#): > > Here’s the SDMB thread where several folks opined that it was probably a right winger: vhttp://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=561766 > > Here’s a choice quote: Can you point to a choice quote where the conclusion was “the Tea Party and other right wingers.” I see a lot of reference to “local” because the guy was white. In other words, how does that thread line up with: > [@Curtis LeMay](#): > > When the news of the Time Square attempted car bombing broke out all those liberal morons, those incessant nagging heads on MSNBC and the Internet immediatly leaned to the conclusion it was the Tea Party and other right wingers. Even Mayor Bloomberg did this. Funny how they ignore that the vast majority of terrorist attacks and attempted attacks on American soil or on Americans were by Islamist terrorists not by right wing fanatics nor left wing fanatics for that matter. Rush Limbaugh didn’t blame hippies when the 1993 WTC bombings happened for God’s sake. > > Example of such folly: [http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2010/may/03/times-square-bomb](http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2010/may/03/times-square-bomb) Can we have a quote from the Mayor? Can you link to a quote from a nagging head on MSNBC? Why did you link to the Guardian? What exactly are you pitting? ---
**Author:** ![emacknight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/3ec8ea/32.png) [@emacknight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/emacknight)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2010, 4:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/addendum-on-time-square-bombing/538580/30 "2010-05-07T04:28:53Z")
> [@Rand\_Rover](#): > > I correctly guessed the basic content of the OP when reading the title. And then I correctly guessed the responses when reading the OP. > > Thing is, you are wrong. There were lots of posts on this very messageboard intimating that a tea partier did it. > > I may link to some later if I’m feeling charitable (or Curtis LeMay doesn’t beat me to it). It appears that because the OP bashed liberals, he is now a victim if liberal douches call him stupid. That is such completely bullshit. Cue **Starving Artist** to rush to his defense. A conservative posted something stupid, linked to something unrelated, and started us all off by insulting liberals. What the fuck did you guys think would happen? He even held up Rush as a beacon of sanity. Well, great, I’m glad Rush didn’t blame a bombing on hippies. If there were lots of posts then CITE THEM, in the fucking OP. Don’t expect the rest of us to do your homework for you while get off. If you want to fuck us all with a rant about the liberal douchebags on MSNBC (does anyone actually watch that?) at least have the fucking courtesy to give us a bit of a reach around and post A FUCKING LINK TO MSNBC! In conclusion: we don’t think you’re stupid because we disagree with your beliefs. We think you’re stupid because YOUR A FUCKING MORON. ---
**Author:** ![Merijeek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f05b48/32.png) [@Merijeek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merijeek)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2010, 4:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/addendum-on-time-square-bombing/538580/31 "2010-05-07T04:35:19Z")
Dipshit posts a completely retarded OP. World shocked. Everyone keep this one bookmarked for the next time pooh-flinging monkey or his reactionary defenders whine about “broad brushes”. -Joe ---
**Author:** ![emacknight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/3ec8ea/32.png) [@emacknight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/emacknight)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2010, 4:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/addendum-on-time-square-bombing/538580/32 "2010-05-07T04:42:42Z")
> [@Merijeek](#): > > Dipshit posts a completely retarded OP. World shocked. > > Everyone keep this one bookmarked for the next time pooh-flinging monkey or his reactionary defenders whine about “broad brushes”. > > -Joe Oh? So because you disagree with his views that means his OP is completely retarded? tisk tisk, typical liberal douche, can’t come up with a better argument so you resort to name calling. this whole thread shows how liberal the SDMB has become. why, I remember a time, back before liberals ruined everything, when conservative could post random shit and people cheered and gave high fives. Now everyone is all “facts” and “cites” can’t someone just give their opinion any more? **Curtis LeMay** clearly believes that at some point between May 1st at 6:28pm and two days later, “all liberal morons” on MSNBC blamed the attack on the Tea Party. Isn’t that enough? Respect his authoritah! ---
**Author:** ![Euphonious\_Polemic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/euphonious_polemic/32/3002_2.png) [@Euphonious\_Polemic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euphonious_Polemic)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2010, 4:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/addendum-on-time-square-bombing/538580/33 "2010-05-07T04:55:21Z")
> [@](#): > > When the news of the Time Square attempted car bombing broke out, someone in a British newspaper said we should not jump to conclusions about who did it, and said that it might have even been a Tea Bagger! As it turns out, this British publication was incorrect - it was not a Tea Bagger!! Funny how there have been terrorist attacks and attempted attacks on American soil by Islamist terrorists as well as by right wing fanatics. Nobody should rush to judgement when something like this happens. Rush Limbaugh recently blamed eco-terrorists for the recent oil rig disaster for God’s sake. There, that seems to make sense. ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ccd318/32.png) [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2010, 5:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/addendum-on-time-square-bombing/538580/34 "2010-05-07T05:05:08Z")
I did not suspect Islamic terrorists for the Times Square bombing. I expect a certain level of professionalism and dedication (as in a suicide bombing) from Islamic terrorists. The lack of skill in this attempt would point you towards suspecting an Angry White Guy. On the other hand, Angry White Guys generally attack targets in the South. So mixed signals. ---
**Author:** ![DanBlather](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f4b2a3/32.png) [@DanBlather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DanBlather)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2010, 5:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/addendum-on-time-square-bombing/538580/35 "2010-05-07T05:10:16Z")
> [@Curtis LeMay](#): > > Don’t veer off-topic. Anyways I’ve finished my necessary homework and will get off soon anyways. Let’s leave your personal habits out of this. ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2010, 5:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/addendum-on-time-square-bombing/538580/36 "2010-05-07T05:35:44Z")
> [@Princhester](#): > > As it turns out, it seems the perp seems to have been an islamist terrorist. Sometimes rational best guesses turn out to be wrong. And this, of course, is the key here. Even if it’s completely true that some liberals suspected homegrown right-wingers for this attack, as suggested in the OP, this doesn’t mean that the fact that it turned out to be an Islamist makes those earlier suspicions unreasonable. And, as others have pointed out, the article linked by the OP as “evidence” for his broad-brush claims is largely an exercise in “wait and see.” It postulates a few possible culprits, and argues that some are more likely suspects than than others, but that’s pretty much it. It’s worth noting, too, that despite the OP’s typically asinine arguments, and his blustering implications that Islamists are the only really viable suspects in cases like this, he appears to have forgotten that it’s barely a month since a bunch of right-wing Christian nutcases were arrested for plotting to kill police officers using firearms and explosive devices. ---
**Author:** ![Michael\_Ellis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/977dab/32.png) [@Michael\_Ellis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Michael_Ellis)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2010, 5:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/addendum-on-time-square-bombing/538580/37 "2010-05-07T05:43:07Z")
> [@Curtis LeMay](#): > > When the news of the Time Square attempted car bombing broke out all those liberal morons, those incessant nagging heads on MSNBC and the Internet immediatly leaned to the conclusion it was the Tea Party and other right wingers. Even Mayor Bloomberg did this. Funny how they ignore that the vast majority of terrorist attacks and attempted attacks on American soil or on Americans were by Islamist terrorists not by right wing fanatics nor left wing fanatics for that matter. Rush Limbaugh didn’t blame hippies when the 1993 WTC bombings happened for God’s sake. > > Example of such folly: [Times Square bomb plot: Don't rush to judgment | Robert Dreyfuss | The Guardian](http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2010/may/03/times-square-bomb) That’s nice. Go stick your head up your ass and jump off a bridge. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2010, 6:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/addendum-on-time-square-bombing/538580/38 "2010-05-07T06:55:00Z")
> [@emacknight](#): > > Can we have a quote from the Mayor? Here’s an interview of the Mayor by Katie Couric, where he said "If I had to guess, twenty five cents, this would be exactly that. Homegrown, maybe a mentally deranged person or someone with a political agenda that doesn’t like the health care bill or something. It could be anything.” [http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2010/05/03/bloomberg\_nyc\_bomb\_suspect\_someone\_with\_a\_political\_agenda.html](http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2010/05/03/bloomberg_nyc_bomb_suspect_someone_with_a_political_agenda.html) As for MSNBC anchors, I couldn’t find anything before the case, but here’s Contessa Brewer on the Stephanie Miller show afterwards saying that there was part of her hoping that the bomber didn’t have ties to any Islamic country because people would use it for justification for bigotry: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xVwAKUnbQPg&feature=player\_embedded#](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xVwAKUnbQPg&feature=player_embedded#)! And that Dreyfus article quoted by the OP (which originally appeared in The Nation, which is a US left wing magazine), started: > [@](#): > > It may be that the Pakistan-based Taliban, the Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan (TTP), has quietly established a Connecticut franchise while we weren’t looking. That’s possible. But it seems far more likely to me that the perpetrator of the bungled Times Square bomb plot was either a lone nut job or a member of some squirrely branch of the Tea Party, anti-government far right. Which actually exists in Connecticut, where, it seems, the car’s license plates were stolen. So the author says that he thinks its more likely the bomber was a tea partier. ---
**Author:** ![Mosier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ea924/32.png) [@Mosier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mosier)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2010, 8:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/addendum-on-time-square-bombing/538580/39 "2010-05-07T08:23:35Z")
I hadn’t heard of the ring-wing-nut car bomb theory until this very thread. I need to get out more. ---
**Author:** ![Turek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/turek/32/18782_2.png) [@Turek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Turek)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2010, 10:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/addendum-on-time-square-bombing/538580/40 "2010-05-07T10:39:10Z")
> [@Curtis LeMay](#): > > Don’t veer off-topic. Anyways I’ve finished my necessary homework and will get off soon anyways. I thought I detected a distinct _fwapping_ sound. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/addendum-on-time-square-bombing/538580.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/addendum-on-time-square-bombing/538580.md?page=3)