Boston Marathon Bombing.

The winners in the "Public Occurrences Challenge" are those pageviewers who predicted that President Obama would publicly call the Boston Marathon bombing a terrorist attack today:

"This was a heinous and cowardly act and given what we now know about what took place, the FBI is investigating it as an act of terrorism. Anytime bombs are used to target innocent civilians, it is an act of terror."

"What we don't yet know however is who carried out this attack or why – whether it was planned and executed by a terrorist organization, foreign or domestic, or was the act of a malevolent individual."

I predicted next week.

Boston Marathan Bombing.

"Please don't be a Muslim."

Right now, in what will be the last post for the night it appears Muslim prayers are going unanswered once again.  The New York Post, CBS News, and Hollywood Life are reporting that a Saudi Arabian man is the main suspect.  Now he could be a Presbyterian, the president and Ambassador Rice will be looking at all possible non-Muslim angles before making a "rush to judgment" on the issue. Be assured.

Boston Marathon Bombing.

Three now dead according to the Los Angeles Times, New York Times, Reuters, Chicago Tribune...there are now three dead. The injured are between 100-130 depending on your carpal-tunnel afflicted wretch of choice.

Boston Marathon Bombing.

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice has issued a statement saying that today's bombing at the Boston Marathon was not an act of terrorism but rather a spontaneous demonstration of ball-bearings in response to a crude anti-ball-bearing movie.

Boston Marathon Bombing.

Contest for pageviewers:

When will President Obama call the Boston Marathon bombing terrorism?

-Tonight.

-Tomorrow.

-This week.

-Next week, after Susan Rice has appeared on the Sunday talk shows saying it was not terrorism.

-Never.

Boston Marathon Bombing.

"Happy to see the horror in America."
                                       -Mohammad al Chalabi, Jordanian Salafi leader, per Washington Times.

See, Islam, that's why we think of you.

Boston Marathon Bombing.

"Please don't be a Muslim."
                                  -Twitter message from Libya.

Right?  I bet that's the thought among Muslims. This is the first time in my memory that I didn't immediately think "Islam" as the prime suspect in a terrorist act. I thought...North Korea. This is the day, after all. Never thought Islam.

Boston Marathon Bombing.

An eight year old boy is one of the two dead. Many people are in critical condition. Fox News reports that a "senior White House official" has said the bombings were terrorist acts. The president did not so label it. CNN reports that medical personnel "are pulling ball bearings out of people."

Boston Marathon Bombing.

Here is the explosion as it happened at the finish line, via the Boston Globe from the Chicago Tribune. http://my.chicagotribune.com/#section/-1/video/p2p-75428181/

At 2:45 pm Eastern Standard Time two explosions occurred at the finish line of the Boston Marathon. So far, two people have been killed and two dozen injured. No source at this time.

This is former police sergeant Ron King.

A tenth-grade teacher at Albany High School in New York gave students the following assignment in "persuasive" writing:

"You need to pretend that I am a member of the goverent in Nazi Germany and you are being challenged to convince me that Jews are evil...You do mot have a choice in your position: you must argue that Jews are evil..."

The teacher is being protected by school officials who refuse to identify him or her by name. The teacher should be fired and should be idenified by name and face. The latter will surely occur through media leaks. The school officials who protected the teacher by failing to name him or her should be fired.

Gunbroker.com, which sold the "Trayvon Martin" shooting targets, Ron King, the police Sergeant fired for offering them for use to others, all who bought, sold, and used them should be hunted down, publicly identified, prosecuted in every conceivable way civilly and, if possible, criminally, and their names and faces should be affirmatively identified with their actions for the rest of their lives, and for all time.

North Korea.

Metaphorical love bites to Professor Jeremi Suri, University of Texas at Austin, who called for a preemptive U.S. strike against the DPRK in an op ed piece in the New York Times yesterday. Professor Suri, he is mature.

And I am mature.

"French Study Suggests Younger women Should Stop Wearing Bras."-CBS News

"North Korean Missile Test Delayed By Windows 8."-New Yorker blog.

"Pentagon: North Korea Has Capacity To Make Nuclear Warhead For Ballistic Missile."-Washington Post

That's not good now is it. No it is not. They don't know for sure; this is just one view; there are others.
Why is this even a topic of discussion? That is: If there is even reasonable doubt there wouldn't the prudent course be to take them out, huh?

Apparently not.

Hey, no prob! You're okay, I'm an asshole, I completely understand that point of view.

No
frigging
problem.

"Missile movements: Is N.Korea trying to 'mess' with the world?"-CNN

That headline followed this headline, also from CNN:

"North Korean missile in upright firing position, official says."

The article accompanying the post headline goes on to say the "upright" missile had been retracted. A sort of international coitus interruptus, a sort of missile erectile dysfunction. Sort of.

In any event. If they don't fire, they certainly will have messed with the world. If they do, what is the plan?  The latest I read was that the U.S. could quickly ("minutes") determine the missile's trajectory and intercept it if it were headed for Japan or Guam. Which means by exclusion if the missile were not headed for Japan or Guam the U.S. would not intercept it. What about if it were headed for South Korea? Can a missile with such long-range capability be programmed to hit nearby Seoul instead? I don't know. Long-standing opinion here: The U.S. should not be defending South Korea. Long-standing opinion everywhere else: we should and we do. My interest is in the safety of the 28,000 U.S. troops in South Korea. Long-standing opinion here and elsewhere: if U.S. troops are attacked in South Korea, North Korea must be destroyed.

In any event. The U.S. should take out the North's missiles, its nuclear capability, its regime. North Korea must be destroyed. I don't like coitus interruptus. One man's opinion. Obama still hasn't called.

"Windows 8 Blamed As PC Sales Slide."-Washington Post.

"Colonel Dai Xu of the People’s Liberation Army wrote online that the new strain of bird flu hitting China, known as H7N9, is an American “bio-psychological weapon” meant to destabilize China."
...
"In general, Chinese Web users appear to have rejected Dai’s argument. In response to the criticism, though, he’s only dug in. “It is common knowledge that a group of people in China have been injected with mental toxin by the U.S.,” he wrote at one point. “I will not retreat even half a step.” He urged Chinese officials to ignore the virus’s apparent spread and argued that the disastrous 2003 SARS outbreak was also an American plot."
...
[Dai] is a lecturer at the National Defence University, giving him a not insignificant platform for his theories and the worldview behind them."

Umm, the Obama strategy to use the Chinese to talk sense into the North Koreans...he needs a new strategy.
...
"Dai’s conspiracy theory does not appear to be widely held, although fears about the United States and its supposed secret desire to topple the Chinese Communist Party are not uncommon among Chinese officials."

:o  How did Dai know my secret desire?  Pssst, Dai: Obama has the secret desire too. We share secret desires. He called me just the other day.

"Responding to concerns that North Korea is preparing to test a medium-range missile after weeks of bellicose threats, the commander of U.S. forces in the Pacific sought to reassure Congress on Tuesday that the Pentagon would be able intercept a missile aimed at the United States or its East Asian allies."
 ...
"The U.S. has never sought to shoot down a North Korean missile, and it's unclear if such a move would escalate the tension that has roiled the region."
                                          -Los Angeles Times, today.

Really? It's unclear if shooting down a North Korean missile would escalate tension? To whom?  To whom is that unclear?  Boy, I sure think it would.

"U.S. Official Believes North Korea Could Test-Fire Missiles At Any Time."-CNN International, 4:00 PM

Obama never calls. Never writes anything-and I'd publish it-, he's not a member, it's like I don't exist!  I bet he calls Paul Krugman.

Nobody listens to me.
It hurts my feelings.

I have a suggestion for a new strategy.

"North Korea Warns Foreigners in South of Nulcear War."-New York Times, April 9.

“The situation on the Korean Peninsula is inching close to a thermonuclear war due to the evermore undisguised hostile actions of the United States and the South Korean puppet warmongers,” the Korea Asia-Pacific Peace Committee, a North Korean state agency, said in a statement on Tuesday. “It does not want to see foreigners in South Korea fall victim to the war.”

Umm, the Obama strategy to "ease tensions" by cancelling the missile test over the weekend...he needs a new strategy.

And now more of today's sporting news:

The University of Louisville is one of the ten best colleges in the American state of Kentucky and tonight...What? It is. ...and tonight scholars from "U.L." became the best college in the Whole of America at playing men's basketball.

And now today's sporting news:

Manchester City Football Club...love bites...defeated Manchester United Football Club...hiss, pfft, pfft...to remain champions of Manchester althoughswineunitedarechampionsofengland.

And there you have it, today's sporting news from Public Occurrences. Fair and balanced.

Margaret Thatcher, 1925-2013.

The great Conservative Prime Minister of Great Britain from 1979-2000 died of a stroke earlier today. Thatcher formed a strong and warm partnership with U.S. President Ronald Reagan.