{"id":2369,"date":"2002-07-05T08:39:12","date_gmt":"2002-07-05T13:39:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/?p=2369"},"modified":"2002-07-05T08:39:12","modified_gmt":"2002-07-05T13:39:12","slug":"and_sometimes_a","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2002\/07\/05\/and_sometimes_a.html","title":{"rendered":"And sometimes a cigar is just an exploding cigar"},"content":{"rendered":"

An Egyptian man pulls out a pistol and begins shooting at the El Al ticket counter at LAX, killing three before he, himself is gunned down, and what’s the focus of this news story? Was it terrorism?<\/a><\/p>\n

I’m sorry, is the purpose behind the question to know whether we should be afraid of some widespread terror conspiracy? As if that would make us somehow more or less safe from crazy Egyptians opening fire at ticket counters?<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can\u2019t rule that out, but there\u2019s nothing to indicate terrorism at this point,\u201d FBI spokesman Matt McLaughlin said, suggesting it might instead be a hate crime.
\n\u201cWe\u2019d have to find some connections to a terrorist group,\u201d he said.
\nIsrael\u2019s foreign ministry blamed terrorism, but didn\u2019t offer any evidence.
\nLos Angeles Mayor James Hahn said on Friday that the gunman appeared to be acting alone.
\n\u201cWe certainly don\u2019t have information yet though to make him part of any conspiracy. It does appear to be something that only involved him,\u201d Hahn said on NBC\u2019s \u201cToday\u201d show. \u201cWe do think it is an isolated incident, but the matter is still under investigation.\u201d<\/p>\n

I’m not sure how you distinguish between “terrorism” and “hate crimes,” particularly in this context, but this obsession with the “terror” aspect, vs. the fact that some guy frickin’ shot a bunch of people at the airport<\/i> seems to be a bit … oddly disproportionate.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An Egyptian man pulls out a pistol and begins shooting at the El Al ticket counter at LAX, killing three before he, himself is gunned down, and what’s the focus…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2369","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-geopolitical-brouhaha"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":24240,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2011\/12\/05\/sometimes-a-story-about-a-cigar-is-just-a-story-about-a-cigar.html","url_meta":{"origin":2369,"position":0},"title":"Sometimes a story about a cigar is just a story about a cigar","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 5-Dec-11 6:12am","format":false,"excerpt":"Bill Willingham has written a cogent and classy faux Q&A about the fan movement against \"Once Upon a Time\" (the TV show) as a rip-off of \"Fables\" -- and in so doing talks a fair amount about the stuff dreams are made of. #ddtb Embedded Link Bill Willingham on \"Fables\"\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":818,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2001\/11\/11\/aha_it_was_the-2.html","url_meta":{"origin":2369,"position":1},"title":"Aha! It was the Russkies behind it!","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 11-Nov-01 9:06pm","format":false,"excerpt":"There's an Internet story going about that bin Laden was \"inspired\" by Russian-born Isaac Asimov's seminal sf novel, Foundation. Supposedly that word is an alternate translation for al Qa'eda. The...","rel":"","context":"In "Books"","block_context":{"text":"Books","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/media\/media-books"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":129888,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/02\/21\/is-anyone-shocked-anti-terrorism-powers-are-being-used-for-non-terrorism-cases.html","url_meta":{"origin":2369,"position":2},"title":"Is anyone shocked anti-terrorism powers are being used for non-terrorism cases?","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 21-Feb-16 10:22pm","format":false,"excerpt":"\"Sneak and Peak\" warrants were describe as essential for combating terrorism when the PATRIOT Act was passed after 9\/11. What's remarkable is how rarely such warrants are being used against terrorism vs. other cases (usually narcotics ones).Bottom line: 'Assume that any power you grant to the federal government to fight\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":133641,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/06\/10\/us-congressman-suggests-alliance-with-isil-against-iran.html","url_meta":{"origin":2369,"position":3},"title":"US Congressman suggests alliance with ISIL against Iran","author":"***Dave","date":"Sat 10-Jun-17 9:55am","format":false,"excerpt":"Dana Rohrabacher is a Republican Representative from the affluent coastal district of Orange County, California. [1]He also seems to think that terrorism is a good thing, if it's terrorism against people we don't like, like the Iranians. And that while ISIL are a bunch of mean guys, hey, if we\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":22232,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2011\/08\/19\/and-sometimes-an-airport-is-just-a-cigar.html","url_meta":{"origin":2369,"position":4},"title":"And sometimes an airport is just a cigar","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 19-Aug-11 6:27am","format":false,"excerpt":"Amazing what sort of stuff you can find in the Internet. \u00a0Like this expose (so to speak) of all the \"Phallic Imagery\" at Denver International Airport. \u00a0By which the \"Third Eagle of the Apocalypse\" seems to mean anything that appears to stick out in any direction. While the video's author\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Fine Art"","block_context":{"text":"Fine Art","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/media\/media-art"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":18206,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2010\/08\/20\/unblogged-bits-fri-20-aug-10-1401.html","url_meta":{"origin":2369,"position":5},"title":"Unblogged Bits (Fri. 20-Aug-10 1401)","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 20-Aug-10 8:01am","format":false,"excerpt":"Links (most recent first) that caught my eye, but did not warrant full-blown blog entries .... Matt Gertz: Morris: Park51 would be a \"command center for terrorism\" - Actually, his assertion is that it would be \"a terrorist recruitment, indoctrination and training center\" just all the other mosques in the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Potpourri"","block_context":{"text":"Potpourri","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/potpourri"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2369","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2369"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2369\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2369"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2369"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2369"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}