Buh. I finish Shaun of the Dead and come to Unfogged for this?
The pizza bomb story didn't completely disappear.
And yes, "hero" has been debased beyond any utility. It's almost completely fungible with "victim" now.
I was going to say, around here the collar-bomb story didn't disappear at all. It was two fucked-up freaks who apparently talked the victim into being an accomplice, but things went awry.
Homer: That Timmy is a real hero!
Lisa: How do you mean, Dad?
Homer: Well, he fell down a well, and... he can't get out.
Lisa: How does that make him a hero?
Homer: Well, that's more than you did!
Also, this story clearly shows that we need airport-like security measures in bus depots.
It was two fucked-up freaks who apparently talked the victim into being an accomplice
No, the victim was the head of the group. After the bomb went off, anyway.
shivbunny says 'there's been a lot of bus violence in Alberta lately.'
I have to agree with Becks; it looks less like anyone was heroic and more like the reporter was trying to find something pleasant to say.
Holding the bus door shut and disabling the bus while the crazy guy with the knife tries to get out and/or drive away sounds like action to me. Maybe not heroism, but certainly taking action. Which when you might legitimately be pretty shocked over what you've just witnessed is admirable.
Could you tell, or guess, how the bus was disabled?
7: I think the point, Witt, is that if this had happened in the US, the crazy knife dude would have been tackled right away, because we love freedom more than Canadians.
8: It's not at all clear from the article. Presumably the guy didn't get back on the bus to disable it.
(I ask because I truly have no idea how this was accomplished, and the article is so offhand about it. Oh yes! Disabled! Quite.)
7: Oh, certainly admirable. It's not a criticism of what they did at all.
I bet they beheaded the bus, just to be poetic.
9: I think the point, Witt, is that if this had happened in the US been Unitarians, the crazy knife dude would have been tackled right away
15: I made the mistake of reading the post at Pandagon over that UU murderer. Man was that depressing. Nobody read it, if you prefer to preserve any notion of your fellow human beings of a conservative persuasion as being respectful of human life. Ugh, ugh, ugh.
(It's a serious of quotations from right-wing commentators about why librerals should be killed.)
11 is what I noticed too. I'm assuming media error/poetic license.
Good heavens. Serious s/b series.
I need to go to bed.
As for disabling the bus, I presumed they took the keys out.
On teevee, it's always the distributor cap.
#8: Please, the bus was "differently abled".
On teevee, it's always the distributor cap.
I'm guessing not. Greyhound buses run on diesel, and diesel engines don't have distributor caps.
I bet the passengers conspired to speculate on fuel prices until the bus was prohibitively expensive to run, and then sabotaged the local corn crop so biodiesel wasn't an option.
Greyhound buses run on diesel, and diesel engines don't have distributor caps.
...said Encyclopedia Brown, proving that Bugs had lied about heroically disabling the bus.
Wouldn't be surprised bus has an external interlock. Being deisals, they leave them idling, sometimes unattended. You wouldn't want to make it too easy for joy-riders.
diesels, even. i must be tired.
Yeah, well when a guy was stabbed by a crack head on a bus in London a couple of years ago, passengers refused to give their clothing to some first aider who was trying to staunch the bleeding while she waited for an ambulance because they didn't want to ruin their stuff.
So yay Canadians.
Unfogged: hero has been debased beyond any utility
4chan: An Hero
Same message, different packaging. I just happened to read this NYT article before Unfogged. Make of it what you will.
29: It's odd that the date on that article is August 3, 2008.
It's in the magazine preview, right? So it'll officially come out on Sunday.
Also, this story clearly shows that we need airport-like security measures in bus depots.
That's certainly what the article closes by saying. Jesus would that ever be a pain in the ass.
31: Aha! Also, I make of this that people suck.
Also, this story clearly shows that we need airport-like security measures in bus depots.
And grocery stores and college campuses and the George Washington bridge and the subway and going outside.
There's quite a bit of security on the Eurostar train, but I think that's because it spends 20 minutes in a tunnel under the ocean. And yes, it's a pain (though possibly less painful than being repeatedly stabbed and beheaded).
1. I'm reading the troll article and may do a post.
2. Bus security would be the death of the Chinatownish bus lines.
A passenger, a truck driver who'd stopped, and the bus driver got back on the bus to see if they could save the victim.
I call that heroic.
It's funny how the Manitoba coverage keeps emphasizing that the psycho-killer bus passenger came from "another province."
Wasn't it Emerson (well, of course it was Emerson) who recently observed that despite its lower rate of violent crime overall (in comparison with the US, that is), Canada does produce some truly crazy killers?
And had a reputation in WWII, at least according to Basil Liddell-Hart, of committing more atrocities than any other western army.
(though possibly less painful than being repeatedly stabbed and beheaded)
So many things are.
Winnipeg is a frozen shithole. Perhaps the dude just snapped when he realised the destination of the bus.
41: heh, I have that album. It's great!
Heh. I've only heard a bit of Venetian Snares and it is pretty abrasive. Dude sounds angry, but even so, to name the tracks of the album:
1. "Winnipeg Is a Frozen Shithole" - 4:32
2. "Winnipeg Is a Dogshit Dildo" - 3:53
3. "Winnipeg Is Fucking Over" - 6:25
4. "Winnipeg Is Steven Stapleton's Armpit" - 2:52
5. "Die Winnipeg Die Die Die Fuckers Die" - 7:01
6. "Winnipeg as Mandatory Scat Feed" - 6:49
7. "Winnie the Dog Pooh (Not Half remix)" - 4:06
8. "Winnipeg Is a Boiling Pot of Cranberries (Fanny remix)" - 2:43
9. "Die Winnipeg Die Die Die Fuckers Die (Spreading the Hepatitis SKM-ETR Style)" - 5:17
suggests that Winnipeg really is a frozen shithole.
The ever-so-sensitive Weakerthans (whom I like, but, hey, they're all about revolution through poetry or something) have a song called "I hate Winnipeg".
I don't know how to link to the clip directly, but on the right hand side of this page, under Audio & Video, there's a video with passengers interviewed, called "Bus witnesses (Graphic content)."
BioHazard,
And yes, "hero" has been debased beyond any utility. It's almost completely fungible with "victim" now.
Yeah, pretty much. In our town this happened recently. A car pinned a guy by the leg (came down on his leg, I'm not sure how) and another guy stopped to help and the other guy told a kid to go dial 911 and find a car jack and the kid knew they had a jack in his garage and ran and got the jack and brought it back. The kid, a twelve year old I think, got a hero medal for 'keeping his head' and retrieving the car jack.
He helped, yeah, and we want to encourage people to help, but a 'hero?' I think he should get a 'good citizen' medal or something like that.
Near as I can tell in this day of the relentless drumming of anti-government sentiments (funded by the GOP meaning the ultra-rich) we no longer want to promote citizenship because that might imply working collectively. Instead we get heroes who always work alone.
Yeah, well in less than a week at the Olympics we are gonna see some really big projects that were built, collectively, with our money. In Beijing.
And yeah, China has it's own problems, no doubt, but they also spent double what anyone else has on the Olympics and where do people think all that money came from? They've been eating our lunch big time.
"I'm hearing you say that you don't think well of the city of Winnipeg. Would that be a fair summary?"
That guy who jumped on to the etrain track to rescue someone and leaned on top of him as a subway car went over them was definitely a hero, though.
(though possibly less painful than being repeatedly stabbed and beheaded)
I think the victim in this case was actually only beheaded once.
Knowing what we now know about the Bush administration, can there be any doubt that evidence will one day emerge that the administration was vetting the political backgrounds of soldiers and their families before conferring the highest decorations (CMOH, Silver Star, etc.)?
Given their fondness for playing the long game and their resolute shamelessness about injecting partisan considerations into everything, surely they wouldn't let another John Kerry or Wes Clarke emerge on their watch. (Pat Tilman and Jessica Lynch may constitute early, partial exceptions.)
The ever-so-sensitive Weakerthans (whom I like, but, hey, they're all about revolution through poetry or something) have a song called "I hate Winnipeg".
It's called "One Great City!". Which is a slogan on signs that welcome people to Winnipeg. Irony I presume.
Also all of the people in the song who say "I hate Winnipeg" are referred to in the third person, indicating that it isn't necessarily the opinion of the songwriter.
if this had happened in the US, the crazy knife dude would have been tackled right away, because we love freedom football more than Canadians.
Everyone's a hero in their own way
Wold, however, are not from Manitoba, but Saskatchewan.
It's funny how the Manitoba coverage keeps emphasizing that the psycho-killer bus passenger came from "another province."
Heh, I was amused by that too because it struck me as typically Canadian. Ditto the bit at the end about how "most Canadians" would be horrified by the story.
How like the Canadians to occult and disavow those among them who think that beheading someone on a bus is fun and sort of cute. Unless they migrate to the States, Canadians are doomed to lifelong mediocrity and conventionality.
if this had happened in the US, the crazy knife dude would have been tackled right away, because we love freedom football more than Canadians.
If that were true, you'd play it properly like they do.