Terrorism

Friday Morning News Roundup

Posted on: April 26th, 2013 by ecthompsonmd No Comments

 

News Roundup

I'll be on the radio this afternoon around 4:30 p.m. on WPEK (www.880therevolution.com). If you have some time, I would appreciate it if you could tune in.

It looks like the United States has confirmed that Syria has indeed used chemical weapons on its people. Now President Obama is really between a rock and a hard place. I don't see how we can avoid taking a more active role in this internal civil war.

Mark Sanford has had a really, really bad week in politics. To be honest, I'm not sure why anybody in South Carolina would vote for this guy. He's already proven that he is more than happy to lie to voters. Maybe he is a changed man. On the other hand, it seems to me that the voters of South Carolina could probably find some other Republican who is lost on the Appalachian Trail.

West, Texas

It has been a little over a week and we still don't have a good idea about why a fire started in a fertilizer plant in West, Texas. Wouldn't it be amazing if we had effective regulations? What if we had regulations which stated that a school or an apartment complex could not be located within one or two miles of the fertilizer plant? What if the fertilizer plant had been forced to place "expensive fire suppression equipment" in their plant which would have snuffed out the fire before it got out of control? What if the volunteer firemen had been adequately trained in such a way that they would've known that it was hopeless trying to put out this fire and instead could have focused their attention on evacuating the area?

Oh, if you're a Dallas Cowboy sports fan, like I am, the thought that the Dallas Cowboys picked a center with their first pick, a center who probably will not start, is so disappointing.

Wednesday Morning News Roundup

Posted on: April 24th, 2013 by ecthompsonmd No Comments

 

Wednesday Morning News Roundup

I really don't understand how a twitter account can get hacked. Specifically, a twitter account of a major news outlet like the Associated Press. How does this happen? The results could have been really, really catastrophic. Yesterday, the Associated Press mistakenly tweeted that the White House was bombed. Wall Street went berserk. Even if it were for a short period of time, this could've been a real problem.

Dow Jones industrial average yesterday

Late last week, I was having lunch with my brother and my sister in Dallas. Our waitress was one of those smiley, bubbly twentysomethings who was very pleasant. After small talk and reviewing the menu, she decided that she could "talk" to us. She then launched into the fact that she belonged to some group that is fighting abortions. She stated that the media was not covering the fact that there was some doctor who is performing late-term abortions "legally." She also said that ObamaCare was going to cover late-term abortions. Well, she was half right. There was a doctor who was performing late-term abortions. He was not doing this legally. The media really wasn't covering the story until recently. Doctor Kermit Gosnell is currently on trial for several counts of murder. If he did half of what he's been accused of, he deserves to be locked away for a very long time. As far as the waitress's other allegation that ObamaCare covers late-term abortions goes, she was wrong.

Many people are currently still trying to digest all of the news that happened last week. They are looking at the Boston Marathon bombings as well as the fertilizer plant explosion in West, Texas. Which disaster was worse? I'm not gonna play the equivalency game here. Instead, what I will say is that the explosion in West, Texas, I believe, will be found to be 100% preventable. I believe this will turn out to be a problem with adequate regulations that are poorly enforced. I believe that we will find out that what happened in West, Texas is probably happening in hundreds, if not thousands, of small towns throughout the United States. These small towns are 100% dependent upon these companies because these companies hire a quarter to 50% of the town's occupants. Industry, not just the fertilizer industry, has been lobbying for years to weaken or remove necessary legislation, complaining that these rules are overly burdensome and expensive.

This is an interesting case surrounding the FBI's probably investigation of the wrong man in 2011.

 

Ricin Investigation – Getting Stranger

Posted on: April 23rd, 2013 by ecthompsonmd No Comments

 

ricin inspection

So, the last time I talked about this ricin investigation, the FBI had some Elvis impersonator from Mississippi in custody. That was so yesterday… Paul Kevin Curtis was the man who was arrested. The FBI and the news media let us to believe that this was an open and shut case. Not so fast. Paul Kevin Curtis is now out on bail. The FBI is currently ransacking (carefully searching) the house of Everett Dutschke. This case is getting stranger and stranger.

From WaPo:

Everett Dutschke said in a phone interview with The Associated Press that the FBI was at his home Tuesday for a search related to the mailing of the poisoned letters to Obama, U.S. Senator Roger Wicker and a Mississippi judge. Dutschke said his house was also searched last week.

Dutschke has maintained his innocence and says he doesn’t know anything about the ingredients for ricin. He said agents asked him questions about suspect Paul Kevin Curtis but also asked him if he would take a lie detector test and whether he had ever bought castor beans, which can be used to make the potent poison.

“I’m a patriotic American. I don’t have any grudges against anybody. I did not send the letters,” Dutschke said.

Lots of questions remain – how could the FBI make a high-profile arrest and not be 100% sure they've got the right man? If you recall, the FBI made the same mistake in the anthrax case. They were 100% sure it was Steven Hatfill. Then, they decided it was not Stephen Hatfill and focused on Bruce Ivins instead.

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