OK, it’s already a bit old, but this is some really incisive commentary on the recent terror plot:
As the initial “OH SWEET MOTHER OF GOD THEY CAN BLOW US UP WITH SNAPPLE BOTTLES!!” hysteria subsides, we discover that these guys had been under surveillance, completely penetrated, by no less than three major intelligence agencies. That they were planning on cell phones, and some of them openly travelled to Pakistan (way to keep the cover, Reilly, Ace of Spies).
I find this whole era very tiresomely unoriginal. s/terrorists/communists/ is so obvious. Same ill-defined but powerful and alien enemy, same kind of hysteria among the ignorant and foolish, same kind of abuse and exploitation of that hysteria by those seeking wealth and power. Does anyone else notice that under the Clinton administration the US weathered TWO terrorist bombings without turning the country into a hysteria driven police state? The Right has been exploiting their Reichstag fire for the last 5 years. This recent manufacture of a terrorist plot was an attempt to fan those flames in order to frighten the public into ignoring the ever more blatant failure of their policies in the hopes this will cut their losses in November. Hopefully the voters will remember then this attempt to manipulate them.
And I just noticed that the latest This Modern World relates to this topic. You might find it good for a laugh. Sorry if the HTML does not work. No preview to test with. 🙂