Yikes- 2 bombs exploded at the Boston Marathon

[bae]

My bet is on Norwegian Lutheran extremists.

[Spartana]

My bet is on Norwegian Lutheran extremists.

Well years of eating Lutefisk will drive you mad :-)!

Personally I think this is probably a disgruntled anti-tax person/anti-patriots day person - a single person - rather than a domestic terrorist group (shades of the original tax revolt - the Boston tea Party?). Domestic terror groups have greater skills at explosive device making then these ones were - which were just a step up from a pipe bomb it seems (pressure cooker with shapnel and probably a timer). But I'm just speculating. It is so sad and tragic that people have to express their "rage against the machine" in this way when there are so many more productive outlets to get your message to the public. .

[Gregg]

A sovereign citizen perhaps?

[Never Again]

Some of us who live here love to hate the marathon - though in a good natured way poking fun at it - due to the big disruption that it causes in our lives once a year. I hope that no one hated the marathon enough and took it seriously enough that it was a motivation for this awful act.

[Rogar]

I have trouble imagining that someone would be so disturbed over taxation to cause so much meaningless human destruction, but it is a strange world sometimes. It seems to me like if there was a true point to be made by the responsible party or parties, it would be lost without a claim of credit and purpose. I tend to think it might just be some sick person or persons much like the mass shootings we've had.

[bUU]

I'm beginning to come around to that conclusion, myself. I was reserving judgement until this afternoon, wondering if the bombings yesterday were the start of an ongoing infliction of terror in US cities. Now that that seems less likely, I'm more inclined toward the mental illness explanation.

[ApatheticNoMore]

I have trouble imagining that someone would be so disturbed over taxation to cause so much meaningless human destruction

true killing innocent people is beyond the pale. But forgive me but everytime I find myself infinitely twisted in some new heck hole of the 1040 I think of that Stack guy who flew his plane into and IRS building, and forgive me but then I smile (that was his issue, he had no clear political agenda, he wasn't even anti-tax in principle, he just found himself subject to some wildly obscure unfair tax law - and yea he was economically a mess, probably a little batty etc.). That was considered an incident of domestic terrorism.

It seems to me like if there was a true point to be made by the responsible party or parties, it would be lost without a claim of credit and purpose. I tend to think it might just be some sick person or persons much like the mass shootings we've had.

It it's entirely devoid of political meaning, it's not even terrorism (maybe if it's 90% devoid of it it shouldn't be either).

[Mrs-M]

Heartbreaking.

I hope there is heaven, and hell.

[Gregg]

I got an interesting email from my BIL in Peshawar, Pakistan. They had a bombing today that killed 16 and injured 35 (preliminary numbers). It was the fourth such attack there in the past three days. His take on the differences between the US and Pakistan boils down to two points. First, and most obvious, we don't have much Taliban activity. Second is the fact that since 9/11 various government entities have kept a very close eye on suspicious groups/people and closely monitored anyone buying abnormal quantities of materials that could be used in bombs. He is involved in global counter-terrorism discussions on a fairly regular basis and the consensus from those seems to be that such activity in the US will increase in the coming years. The bombs in Boston were basically IEDs. Low tech, cheap (way below the cost of an assault rifle and ammo) and effective at inflicting small scale damage that can have a much larger psychological impact. I don't know if that assessment is correct or not, but if a tactic like this continues to be effective in other places it makes sense that disturbed people, either individuals or groups with a common cause, would realize that and begin to consider this an option more often.

[bae]

Gregg - Just a month or so ago, I went through some extensive required HAZMAT operations training for firefighters. 40 hours of classroom, plus lots of practical work.

It was basically a graduate class on How To Be A Better Terrorist. And we train 10s of thousands of people a year through that program, essentially required since 9/11.

Nobody who has taken this training would bother with something silly like guns or small IEDs to cause A Real Ruckus, if they were really motivated, when there are so many...more effective...things just sitting around. It's positively scary.

It's frankly a miracle we haven't had more Bad Things happen than we have. Either people are inept (and I don't want to fall into the trap of underestimating bad guys), or our intelligence/security is really good (which, working in the field a bit, I don't believe), or our enemies aren't really so numerous and motivated inside the USA (which is my leading theory).