Tel-Chai Nation

With the news that the NYC terror threat notifications were a hoax and even a Georgia Tech student confessing that he'd pulled a prank this week, some points are going to have to be made.

As one person investigating an earlier bomb scare at Georgia Tech (Hat tip: Photodude) said, 'Folks need to know that things that would at one time be considered pranks can’t be done anymore.' And they're right. In this day and age when the possibilities of terrorist attacks can indeed happen, that anyone should pull a hoax upon the public is doing something quite offensive, mainly because of the risk being taken in causing people to let down their guard, which could enable a real act of terrorism to be pulled.

Most gawk-inducing of all, however, was the Atlanta Journal-Constitution's saying the following about the prankster:

In Hollot's online blog on myspace.com, he joked Saturday about needing "more dry ice and more water bottles." Monday night, he described his mood as "terrible beyond belief."

Now is this for real?* Because while it's true that these kind of reports serve as "blog bait", which is actually outraging, and should be, to the vast majority of bloggers, what's really angering here is that now, thanks to what the AJC is telling, if what's said about Theodore Hollot is true, it could be used as an attempt to smear bloggers by the MSM (the NY Times sure does enjoy doing that, don't they?). In which case, Hollot has done little more than to make people like himself the scorn of the sensible bloggers.

As for the NYC subway threat, here's what Neal Boortz had to say:

It looks like New York City was had on the subway threat last week. According to the U.S. government, the informant that provided the information has admitted to lying about it. So New York's subway system was in a panic for no reason. Such is life.

But you have to look at this situation and ask yourself: how prepared are we to handle a real threat to our cities, and can you trust the government to protect you? The answer is very clear: absolutely not. When an Islamic terror attack happens in a large American city....when, not if, but when....the same incompetent city, state and local officials will be there to protect you. Comforting, isn't it?

Now imagine if such an attack were nuclear. A dirty bomb going off in a shopping mall. A sports stadium. A downtown during lunch hour. What we've seen with these false alarms and with the response to Hurricane Katrina is a dry run for when the inevitable occurs, and it isn't pretty.

Something else...if there is a threat from Islamic terrorists to the New York City subway, will the authorities be profiling riders of Arab descent? Probably not...that would be discrimination, you know...which is of course a much worse crime than murder.

Boortz is correct, we cannot trust our guv'ment to protect us. But one thing is clear. So-called pranks cannot be tolerated, and, as Michelle Malkin says:

Very dumb. In a post-9/11 era, these kinds of pranks deserve strong punishment.

Yes, they do. Not just because there is a very probable chance that these "pranks" could cause severe injury, if not death, but also because it's just plain wrong, and serves to take attention away from the real possibilities of terrorist threats.

* I tried to see if I could find any blog on Myspace.Com that could be Hollot's, but was unsuccessful in searching.

Also available at Basil's Blog, Jo's Cafe, Cao's Blog, The Political Teen

Labels: United States