Patterico's Pontifications

4/18/2013

Boston Bombing Victim Helped Identify Suspect?

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 8:57 pm



Most of you have seen the horrible and graphic picture of a man whose leg was blown off in the Boston bombings. It looks like he may have helped solve the case (via narciso):

Minutes before the bombs blew up in Boston, Jeff Bauman looked into the eyes of the man who tried to kill him.

Just before 3 p.m. on April 15, Bauman was waiting among the crowd for his girlfriend to cross the finish line at the Boston Marathon. A man wearing a cap, sunglasses and a black jacket over a hooded sweatshirt looked at Jeff, 27, and dropped a bag at his feet, his brother, Chris Bauman, said in an interview.

Two and a half minutes later, the bag exploded, tearing Jeff’s legs apart. A picture of him in a wheelchair, bloodied and ashen, was broadcast around the world as he was rushed to Boston Medical Center. He lost both legs below the knee.

“He woke up under so much drugs, asked for a paper and pen and wrote, ‘bag, saw the guy, looked right at me,’” Chris Bauman said yesterday in an interview.

Those words may help crack the mystery of who perpetrated one of the highest-profile acts of terror in the U.S. since the 2001 assault on New York City and the Washington area, one that killed three people and wounded scores.

Quite a story.

P.S. I can’t get over how the man in the picture reminds me of Carl DeLong, who took his own life after his body was similarly maimed by one of Brett Kimberlin’s bombs. DeLong’s injury was incredibly similar, and he took his own life — and the cretin Bill Schmalfeldt blames DeLong while praising Kimberlin as his friend and a force for good. The events of the past few days hopefully make it clear why setting off bombs like this, and maiming or killing people in the process, is the sort of thing that should earn one a lifetime in prison.

P.P.S. There is an even more eye-opening photo I have seen on Twitter, but I can’t yet verify that it’s not a hoax. Will look into it and get back to you if it’s real.

P.P.P.S. You think you’re feeling under the weather looking at all this bad news? Try this on for size. Man runs in Boston Marathon, sees bomb go off. Goes to West Texas, sees fertilizer plant explode. Same guy.

Shooting on MIT Campus; UPDATE: Explosives Being Detonated? Could It Be the Bombers?; UPDATE: It is.

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 8:31 pm



Details are sketchy.

Enough miserable news already!

UPDATE: There does not seem to be TV news coverage of any moment, but Twitter is reporting details that make one wonder if the people involved could be the bombers. There is live video here, where the headline reads: “An MIT police officer was shot and killed Thursday night. In addition, police were led on a chase into Watertown, where a gunfight and explosives were detonated.”

An MIT police officer is apparently dead.

Apparently one or more suspects are in custody.

Insert your favorite expression of disbelief here.

UPDATE x2: It’s not clear that tonight’s events are related to the bombings, but it appears that the Watertown incident is related to the MIT shooting. And I don’t think we know it’s NOT the bombers. I’m still trying to learn what the heck is going on.

UPDATE x3: The cable channels are starting to cover it now.

UPDATE x4: A reporter just heard a loud boom.

UPDATE x5: Seeing a report that the explosion was a deliberate explosion by the bomb squad. Riveted to the live coverage.

UPDATE x6: I am dozing off. Wake me if it’s the bombers! Good night.

UPDATE x8: One last link thanks to gary gulrud: the story from Twitchy. I have the live feed on my phone now and I think I will fall asleep to it.

UPDATE x9: The Boston TV ration reports it is the Marathon bombers behind all this. New post here.

Big Media Earns Your Trust! Part 2

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 7:03 pm



This morning, I bagged on the New York Post, which told us there were 12 people killed in the Boston Marathon bombings and labeled two nonsuspects as suspects on their front page; CBS, for giving us Rathergate; CNN, for telling us yesterday that a suspect had been arrested for the Boston Marathon bombings; Fox News, the Associated Press, or The Boston Globe, for echoing those reports; the New York Daily News for doctoring a photo and violating clear ethical standards; and the Los Angeles Times for just being a terrible newspaper in general.

Reuters did not want to be left out of this party!

And so, we get this hilarious screenshot of an obituary published by Reuters:

Rumors of Soros’s death have been greatly exaggerated. Reuters now has this mea culpa:

Reuters erroneously published an advance obituary of financier and philanthropist George Soros. A spokesman for Soros said that the New York-based financier is alive and well. Reuters regrets the error.

Boston Bombings: FBI Releases Suspects’ Pictures

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 6:09 pm



Hot Air has a good roundup. Here is the video from the press conference, showing the images:

[Video removed as it is causing error messages]

Here are a couple of images:

More here.

Big Media Earns Your Trust!

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 7:06 am



The New York Post has published, on its front page, pictures of two men the Post says are suspects in the Boston Marathon bombing. Just one problem:

Whom to trust, whom to trust? The Post, which told us there were 12 people killed in the Boston Marathon bombings? Or CBS, which gave us Rathergate?

In a situation like this, I like to go to a neutral third party for confirmation of important details. Let’s ask CNN! . . . which told us yesterday that a suspect had been arrested for the Boston Marathon bombings. Or Fox News, the Associated Press, or The Boston Globe, which echoed those reports.

I know! Let’s ask the New York Daily News, the organization that manipulated a photo of the Boston Marathon to remove unwanted gore, thus violating clear ethical standards.

No, my friends, readers of this blog especially know that when you have a hunger for the unvarnished, reliable truth, delivered without regard to political bias, there’s really only one place to go.

The Los Angeles Times.

Now pardon me while I go throw up.

Sowell on Illegal Immigration

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 6:45 am



This column is gold from start to finish. I can’t possibly excerpt it and do it justice. Here are a couple of quotes:

Most laws are meant to stop people from doing something, and to penalize those who disregard those laws. More generally, laws are meant to protect the society from the law breakers.

But our immigration laws are different. Here the whole focus is on the “plight” of those who have broken the laws, and on what can be done to lift the stigma and ease the pressures they feel, so that they can “come out of the shadows” and “normalize” their lives.

Merely using the word “illegal” to describe their breaking the law is considered to be a sign of mean-spiritedness, if not racism. The Associated Press refuses to let their reporters refer to people who sneaked across the border into this country, in violation of American immigration laws, as “illegal immigrants.”

On the other hand, if an ordinary American citizen breaks a law, no one cares if he has to live in fear for years — “in the shadows,” as it were — worrying that his illegal act will be discovered and punished. No one bothers to come up with euphemisms to keep from calling what he did illegal.

Read it all.


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