Always something surprising

TYG has been working on some gardening projects, so this morning we headed over to Loew’s. It’s an inconvenient time for me, but she wanted to get the last plants out before this weekend (we have a lot going on, so we won’t have time to do it then) and I needed to get down there and pick up a couple of items for repairs (very, very minor. Mr. Fix-It I ain’t), so off we went.
Which, of course, threw the day’s schedule into disorder, and I have a local event to attend this evening (one of my friends is reading his newly published work), so it’s just links again, mostly about Boston.
•In light of all the confusing reports coming out of Boston after the bombs, my friend Robbyn Brooks discusses the risks of trying to beat Twitter without losing accuracy.
•Roy Edroso looks at right-bloggers mixing Muslim, Muslim! shrieks with gloating over how the bombing somehow totally disproves everything liberals think. Why, liberals even “rationalize this away as two crazy, murderous people who just coincidentally happen to have been Muslims.” Because mass murder is only unrelated to race when you’re white. Whereas as Al Jazeera points out, a lot of commentators are trying to define the bombing in terms of the Brothers being Chechen.
•Wild Hunt looks at pagans among first responders and the relationship between their work and their faith.
•Scott Lemieux discusses the importance of respecting Tsarnaev’s constitutional rights. Emily Bazelon and Joan Walsh discuss whether we should see the brothers as alienated refugees or as disgruntled white Americans.
•John McCain and Lindsay Graham, on the other hand, demand he be tried as an enemy combatant.
•New Apps ponders why we treat a Texas fertilizer plant explosion that killed 14 as less newsworthy than a bombing that killed two people (among other reasons, lower-class victims and it isn’t seen as quite as random or scary). Politics also plays a part, I think. When I pointed out how many soldiers had died in Iraq back in my old Destin Log columns, I’d invariably be told that was no big deal, we lose more people in traffic accidents each year. By that logic, of course, the 9/11 deaths were no big deal (these are, surprise, arguments from people who talk about how they love and respect Our Soldiers) … but the 9/11 deaths justify war and I was arguing the soldier deaths were a reason not to fight. So totally different standards.
•And if anyone plays the “Bush kept us safe” card, here’s a list of attempted and successful terrorist attacks during the Bush years. Glenn Greenwald points out that as of yesterday (I haven’t read the news yet today), there’s no reason to think it’s a terrorist attack, other than Muslim=terrorism.
•Sen. Rand Paul argues the real issue is immigration! Just forget about American terrorists such as Timothy McVeigh and Eric Rudolph …