This entry was posted on
Thursday, July 5th, 2007 at
10:45 am and is filed
under The War on Stupid.

“The greatest danger of bombs is in the explosion of stupidity that they provoke.” – Octave Mirbeau

Yeah, I know I keep wheeling that quote out, but – to paraphrase almost everyone in the Bush administration – I don’t think anyone could have predicted pre-emptive stupidity…

The Register – Beavis and Butthead in London jihad: “We’ll heat up these propane cylinders with burning petrol, and they’ll go off like bombs”, boys the world over have remarked with glee. They don’t realise that air is a poor oxidiser, and the only “explosion” they will get is when gas pressure inside the cylinders is great enough to burst them. Then the propane will ignite, and a nice fireball will blossom. A fireball, not an explosion. Oh, the Piccadilly fireball would have blown the car’s windows out, and popped its doors open, and sent various bits like mirrors and so forth into the air at velocities possibly fatal to people nearby. It would have looked really cool, that’s for sure. But an explosive event…a detonation? Not in a million years. (via)

Yes, this new method of pursuing casualties over spectacle should cause some concern… not least because the tactic has reached our shores after years of development in the terrorists’ playground we created in Iraq.

(DING! Blair Legacy #1)

There’s also something worrying about the level of determination shown at Glasgow but if you just take a moment to picture that moment…

SFX: Sound of impact. Fire engulfs vehicle. There is a pregnant pause.

BARRY: “Where’s the kaboom? There was supposed to be an earth-shattering kaboom!”

PAUL: “No worries, Barry… we appear to have plenty of fire. I’ll just carry some indoors, shall I?”

Gordon Brown and his crew earn some credit for not going Chicken Little on us, but they not only have to keep a cool head themselves… they also have to contend with tabloids that have fear-mongering down to a fine art (again, after years of development).

(DING! Blair Legacy #2)

Guardian – We are offering the terrorist a megaphone for his cause: “Doctor Evil”, cries the Sun, demanding we “Rip up the hated human rights act”. “Docs of War”, chimes the Mirror, discarding “innocent until proved guilty”. “Terror cell in the NHS”, shrieks the Express. Nor is the rest of the media much better. Fed by anonymous security officials eager to boast of their successes, almost all reports have contrived to link the bombs with al-Qaida, 9/11, the NHS, mayhem and martyrdom. (via)

And yet, meanwhile, other people with bombs and/or a desire to use them receive very little attention… nobody is even bothering to report what they’re up to, much less blow out of all proportion their explosives, dreams and abortions.

(Psst! To begin to understand why this is important, you simply need to meet Rage Boy.)