I like to keep you on your toes here at the Propaganda Pre$$ Monitor:
"Suspect package closes downtown Boston block" by Alyssa Creamer | Globe Correspondent, September 21, 2013
Boston police closed down traffic on a block near Government Center to investigate a suspicious package found on a sidewalk near Congress and New Chardon streets, police officials said.
A police officer discovered the package — a 1-foot-by-1-foot box containing visible metal electrical components, wires, and a powder-like substance — by a trash can near the Government Center garage at approximately 10:30 a.m., according to Captain Thomas Lee of the Boston Police Department. He said the department bomb squad, as well as investigators from the Department of Homeland Security, responded to the scene.
I know this $ounds in$idious, but i$ it al$o po$$ible he placed it there?
It makes a certain amount of $en$e, e$pecially when you con$ider the po$ agenda-pu$hing $ource that is my pri$m.
You know, I'm glad I'm way out here in Nof***sville and not the stinking and dangerous city of Boston.
At least we know the $URVEILLANCE CAMERAS caught everything, so this won't take long to solve.
If they don't have $ecurity cameras monitoring the government garage (wouldn't want a 'terrorist' driving a car bomb in there), then WTF?!!!!
The fifth annual TD Bank Mayor’s Cup, a cycling race that cuts down Congress Street and features about 200 cyclists, was delayed several minutes as police ensured the box could not cause any destruction by “disrupting” it with a water cannon, according to Lee.
“We couldn’t take any chances with it being near a garage and with a large public event next to it,” said Lee. He added that police do not believe the package was an explosive device, but they plan to inspect its contents further.
Lee said some people hoping to watch the race were probably frustrated by the temporary closing of the parking garage. Several businesses were also shut, as employees, customers, and pedestrians were forced to evacuate the block during the investigation.
It is all part of the boil-the-frog, mind-manipulating conditioning and continuous raising of the level of fear in this country -- with sometimes tragic consequences (down the ma$$ media memory hole with that).
“Even the EMT put on a bulletproof vest, so you knew something was up,” said Ryan Reardon, a parking attendant for P&P Parking at 65 Merrimack St. who was asked by the police, along with others, to move further away from the scene.
Yeah, I'm sure they "asked" him.
Reardon and several other people said they heard what sounded like a firework or a gunshot, but they could not be sure if the sound was police destroying the package.
Police would not say whether they believe the suspicious package is in any way connected to the recent string of bomb threats at five Boston CVS locations.
What? First I think I've seen of it in my unread second sections!
The solution is simple there; just avoid CVS stores.
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Feels a little like martial law, but Bostonians are used to that after the Marathon militarization and lock-down.
And while on the bikes this morning:
"A cyclist’s mecca, with lessons for Boston; By innovating ways for cars and bikes to share the road, the Dutch have set the safety standard" by Martine Powers | Globe Staff, September 22, 2013
Interesting choice of words to describe the bicycle capital of the world.
HOUTEN, the Netherlands — A place with more bikes than people....
In America it is guns, God Bless it.
The likelihood of getting killed on a bike is among the lowest in the world, about five times less than the United States.
Almost every major street features separated bike lanes, bike-specific traffic lights, bike highways, and yield signs that, together, deliver one message: The bicycle is king.
It’s the kind of European fantasy that sure as heck would never work in Boston.
Except, it might.
As local transportation officials and engineers work to improve safety for Boston’s cyclists, they’re starting to realize that the things we think make Boston bad for bikes — cramped streets, crowded roadways, a desperate need for parking spots that leaves little room for bike lanes — are exactly the factors that made the Dutch bicycle revolution possible half a century ago.
In fact, politicians, government leaders, and urban planners in Boston are increasingly looking to the Netherlands to figure out how to improve bike safety, and with it, bike usage, at home.
I find all this very interesting as the bike-riding cultures of China and India now switch over to cars. Why did Obomber bother to bailout the auto industry anyway?
Largely, American planners inspired by the Dutch experience have taken an “if you build it, they will come” approach: If American cities invest the money to redesign their roads, transportation experts say, children, senior citizens, and men and women in suits will try out cycling.
I hate to be the one to break it to you, but we have no more money out here. You wealthy folk got it all. Maybe you think there are large pools of untapped money out here, and if so you need to go see a head doctor for delu$ion. That's why one picks up a bike out here (or because of a DUI conviction).
But the Dutch have another lesson to share: Better bicycle infrastructure isn’t enough. You need better cyclists, too, and more bike-aware motorists. Universal in-school bicycle education guarantees that every Dutch child can comfortably ride in traffic. By the time they get their drivers’ license, they’ve used bicycles as their primary form of transportation for years — and that habit continues into adulthood.
• • •
Living in bicycling nirvana leads many people — especially the young Dutch who have known nothing else — to believe it has been always been this way....
As do the young American children who now attend the indoctrination and inculcation conditioning centers we call schools.
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Yeah, good luck finding a parking space if you survive the ride:
"Two cyclists dead after car strikes bike ride in N.H." by Gal Tziperman Lotan and Jeremy C. Fox | Globe Correspondents, September 21, 2013
HAMPTON, N.H. — Two Massachusetts bicyclists were killed and two others injured when a car veered into the path of participants of a two-day bike ride in Hampton, N.H., on Saturday morning, police said.
Darriean Hess, 20, of Seabrook, N.H., was driving south across the Neil R. Underwood Memorial Bridge on Route 1A, also Ocean Boulevard, when the car she was driving crossed into the northbound lane, police said in a statement.
According to police, Hess struck four bicyclists from the Tri-State Seacoast Century ride around 8:30 a.m. She was taken to Portsmouth Regional Hospital with minor injuries.
Elise Bouchard, 52, of Danvers, was pronounced dead at Portsmouth Regional Hospital. Pamela Wells, 60, of South Hamilton, was taken to Exeter Hospital, where she was pronounced dead.
Uwe Uhmeyer, 60, of Essex and Margo Heigh, 54, of Danvers, were hospitalized.
In a phone interview last night, Uhmeyer’s wife, Lori, said her husband had multiple injuries, but “there’s nothing internal and nothing that won’t heal. He’s going to be OK, thank God.”
She said her husband had participated in the Seacoast Century ride for the past two years and taken part in several charity rides.
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At the scene, a guardrail on the southeast edge of the bridge showed a deep dent where it was apparently stuck by the car. Multiple circles, lines, and dots had been drawn in orange spray paint.
A little farther south, a sign reading “Welcome to Seabrook Beach & Harbor New Hampshire” was spun around 180 degrees and deeply cracked.
Jim Gorman lives about a quarter-mile from the accident scene and said he found nearly a dozen emergency vehicles at the scene, including police cruisers, ambulances, and fire engines.
He said he was unable to see the accident scene clearly because authorities blocked off the road starting about 100 yards south of the scene.
“Everything was at a standstill, bikes, cars — nobody was going through,” he said. “I just talked to a couple of folks down there, and they said it looked like it was really serious.”
“It’s very sad,” he said. “It should have been a festive day.”
Hess has not been charged with any wrongdoing, dispatcher Karissa Paustian said. The investigation is continuing and anyone with information can call....
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I suppose a car is not much safer, and I don't say that flippantly. Each life is precious and bike accidents that kill suck, I don't care who it is.
Also see:
Boston officials plan to install 20 miles of cycle tracks by 2018
Hopkinton mourns teen cyclist killed in crash
I'm going to skip the peddling and go watch some football instead. It's forced socialization because I would rather be here blogging.
NEXT DAY UPDATE:
"Bicyclists in deadly N.H. crash shared bond; Investigation continues" by Jeremy C. Fox | Globe Correspondent, September 23, 2013
Police in Hampton, N.H., said Sunday that the investigation was ongoing and declined to comment on whether the driver, 20-year-old Darriean Hess of Seabrook, N.H., would face criminal charges....
Saturday’s crash was the first time in the history of the 40-year-old ride that such a tragedy has ever occurred, said Andy Wallenstein, chairman of publicity for the Granite State Wheelmen, which organizes the annual event....
Promoting bicycling safety is one of the club’s main purposes, he said. All cyclists are required to wear helmets, and the rules of the road are posted at the group’s headquarters.
Are they trying to imply the riders were not properly equipped?
Ride organizers hired additional police officers to patrol the route in marked and unmarked cars, according to the group’s website.
Is that one that Ms. Hess was driving?
Wallenstein said it was too early to say whether the accident would prompt the group to make changes in the ride, which continued on Sunday. But, he added, “I don’t think [Saturday’s fatal crash] changes the event in any way, as far as I see it.”
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David Watson, executive director of the Massachusetts Bicycle Coalition, said, “Motorists need to be very aware that cycling is exploding in popularity for both recreational and transportation means.”
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Apparently that didn't mean much.
