I actually think this is healthy, since there is very little that "caused" or could have prevented folks willing to prepare for years to use boxcutters to take over airplanes, then kill themselves in using them as airborne weapons. Oh sure, folks will find some way to close this particular barn now that the horse has gotten out, but there is no way to create a security system with no holes that can never be exploited by those willing to kill themselves using them.
If people would deal with this basic reality of vulnerability, we might be able to back people off their kneejerk support for cutting back civil liberties in the vain hope of absolute security.
-- Nathan Newman
----- Original Message ----- From: "ravi" <gadfly at home.com> To: "LBO Talk" <lbo-talk at lists.panix.com> Sent: Monday, September 24, 2001 2:18 PM Subject: back street boy backs off
>
>
> for lbo-talk members who are backstreet boys fans (a majority i
> would hope, for who can be for peace, love and all things nice
> and not love these fellows), a bit of heart warming news (and
> dont ask me where and how i find this stuff ;-)). last post for
> the day:
>
> http://www.bayarea.com/entertainment/news/docs/009464.htm
>
> Backstreet Boy apologizes for 'insensitive' remark
>
> Knight Ridder Newspapers
>
> In an exclusive on-air interview with New York pop-radio station host
> Paul ``Cubby'' Bryant, Kevin Richardson of the Backstreet Boys
> apologized for what he called ``insensitive'' statements made in an
> interview with Canadian television channel MuchMusic last week.
>
> Richardson said: ``I just think we are a little bit of an arrogant
> nation and maybe this is a little bit of a humbling experience. What
> has our government done to provoke this action, that we don't know
> about?''
>
> Thursday, Bryant and WHTZ-FM, who have close personal and professional
> relationships with many of today's stars, gave Richardson the chance to
> clarify.
>
> ``I appreciate this opportunity,'' Richardson began. ``I just want to
> say that our prayers and our thoughts go out to all the victims and
> their families. I want to clarify something that I said, and my
> thoughts weren't put together quite properly.
>
> ``We had been doing about five interviews in Toronto, Canada, and as I
> was sitting there listening to the rest of the guys talk, I just got
> overwhelmed with anger and frustration, on `How can this happen in our
> country, in this nation that we live in?' And I said that I think we as
> a nation may be a little arrogant. Maybe this is a wake-up call for our
> nation.
>
> ``What I meant by arrogant is that we've been a little overconfident,
> we've maybe taken our freedom for granted, taken our security for
> granted. And I just want to clarify myself. I apologize if I have
> offended anyone, any of the families of the victims, if my statement
> seemed insensitive, but I was reacting out of anger and out of
> frustration, and I was emotional.
>
> ``I don't want anyone to think that I don't love this country -- I'm
> proud to be an American. I just want to clear that up.''
>
> ----------------
>
> --ravi
>
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------
------
> man is said to be a rational animal. i do not know why he has not been
defined
> as an affective or feeling animal. more often i have seen a cat reason
than
> laugh or weep. perhaps it weeps or laughs inwardly - but then perhaps,
also
> inwardly, the crab resolves equations of the 2nd degree. -- alasdair
macintyre.
>
>