Mentally troubled people

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I meant to write some hardware-focused posts these days, but those drafts look petty in the context of an avalanche of instinctive caveman reactions to the Paris attacks these days.

Paris attacks: Eight terror suspects named so far are not refugees and have EU passports

The Independent

This is unimportant to the stupid people, of course. In their opinion foreign terrorists would 'justify' bombing other countries, while domestic terrorists would 'justify' the suspension of religious freedom and ethnic cleansing fantasies. Either way, they're primitive.

NYT Editorial Slams “Disgraceful” CIA Exploitation of Paris Attacks, But Submissive Media Role Is Key

The Intercept

The reflexive exploitation of tragic events by the usual suspects for lobbying for normally unacceptable legal changes is very common, far beyond the errorism issue. Americans know this from school shootings, for example; the usually suspended gun control debate flares up after every such even for a few weeks.

I suppose such reflexive demands are not a mere failure of the news media that's a willing multiplier. The real causes are likely that we don't get problems solved without extraordinary pressure and don't decisively penalize dangerous idiots for being just that, rather allow them to return and return and return.
 

Signs Point to Unencrypted Communications Between Terror Suspects

The Intercept

This was interesting in two ways; for one, it rejects some of the reflexive claims and accusations of the despicable pro-mass surveillance state crowd. Second, it reveals that yet again a large multi-target terror strike only succeeded because law enforcement and intelligence services have failed to make good use of a wealth of hints, as in 2001. These communities should be penalized for demanding more authority and less civil rights, and even more so they should be punished for failing on their job.

 

Meanwhile, Paul Krugman appears to have a faint hope that Hollande isn't just gone nuts, but maybe exploiting the increased freedom of action for macroeconomic good. I think Hollande went much farther than necessary for such a strategy.

By the way; where does the idea that panicking and demanding aggressive actions, discrimination against millions of people, bigger budgets, more intelligence service powers are signs of a 'strong leader' come from?

To me, this sounds like fearful chicken(hawk) behaviour. A 'strong leader' would laugh off the scratch and point out that a ridiculous rag tag militia and stupid immature boys cannot do more than itch a community of 800+ million Westerners. Daesh is the equivalent of a flea to us; its bite may be irritating, but ultimately it's utterly harmless to us as a group. Our real problems are larger by multiple orders of magnitude.

Politicians who freak out about errorists are the equivalent of a person jumping onto furniture to escape the terror of a common spider walking on the floor.

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