Not Enough Silicon?

A great recipe for political success: Frighten the population into a hysterical frenzy - send in the troops - catch a suspect - reap applause: 

The reports from Boston, after the Chechen suspect was arrested were full of “we are a resilient city” and “we are proud to be Bostonians”, whilst hordes in the city of Harvard and MIT shouted “USA USA” reminding one of recent classy Republican Party conventions.

As terror attacks go, this one was fairly minor. And yet, public transport was shut down, airspace was restricted and more than a million Bostonians were put under curfew. Then, many thousands of policemen, national guardsmen, FBI agents and who knows what other agencies they have, were sent out to locate one man whose identity was known to the authorities.

Is that their level of sophistication in the land of high-tech or is it just that the word terrorist gets everybody’s knickers in a twist? They don’t, after all, close down American cities every time a murderer is on the run. Perhaps they should? 

Such heavy-handed mode of operation could perhaps have been avoided, had more sophisticated and intelligent FBI work been able to prevent the Marathon bombing: having been tipped off by the Russian (?) secret service, the FBI that interrogated the elder (now killed) Tsarnaev brother a couple of years ago, failed to recognize his radicalization.

Here, There, Everywhere

Sara (with hat) Netanyahu at the Thatcher funeral

Hat off to Obama for not sending a representative.

Thatcher

When critics complained about the high cost of Mrs. Thatcher’s funeral (apparently ten million pounds), one of the Lady’s many admirers responded that the cost of looking after the Jordanian terrorist Abu Qatada - who has successfully fought off extradition to Jordan - in the UK and the cost of the various judicial processes connected with his making Britain his chosen land has already exceeded ten million pounds.  

Now, if Margaret Thatcher had stayed alive (she was no longer capable of doing any harm) and Abu Qatada had died – we would have enjoyed a double saving.

On a serious note – the send off that the previous Labour government and the current Tory administration have allowed Thatcher to orchestrate for herself was an inflated outrage. We are owed an apology by the government.

Other than for heads of state or government killed due to and during their term office, this whole state funeral nonsense should be discontinued.