BobHarris.com - Don't let the terrorists win! Vote Ignignokt/Err in '08!

Books! Actual books!

"A rollicking ride of intellectual discovery and emotional growth... his comic timing never fails"

-- The Wall Street Journal

"Pulls you in like a good sports story"

-- The New York Times Book Review

"Endearingly frank... jubilant... lighthearted and fast-paced"

-- New York Newsday

"A surprisingly touching memoir"

-- Entertainment Weekly

"Snappy and informative"

-- Associated Press

"Effortlessly funny and informative... tender, human, and very wise... A must for anyone who loves Jeopardy!, or has ever seen it, or is breathing."

-- Joss Whedon, creator, Buffy the Vampire Slayer

"I haven't seen Jeopardy! since I was a kid, and yet I was charmed and amused by Bob Harris's fascinating and surprisingly suspenseful book. Through sheer force of personality, he takes this brainy TV show and makes it funny and easy to relate to."

-- Ira Glass, creator and host, This American Life

"A surprisingly intimate, entertaining book."

-- Orson Scott Card, 4-time Hugo Award winner, author of Ender's Game

"Funny, enlightening -- and just might help you win a million bucks on Jeopardy!"

-- A. J. Jacobs, author of The Know-It-All

"A masterful job of describing the feel of Jeopardy! in the heat of battle... I knew Bob was a great guy and a fantastic Jeopardy! player. Now I've found that he's also a wonderful writer. I think I'm starting to hate him."

-- Brad Rutter, top money-winner in Jeopardy! history

Books I'm Getting

Who Hates Whom:
Well-Armed Fanatics, Intractable Conflicts,
and Various Things Blowing Up —
A Woefully Incomplete Guide™

“Revelatory... Harris's sly wit and infectious curiosity make understanding world chaos fascinating... witty, horrific, and necessary.”

— Boston Globe

"Brave... irreverent... charges into the thick of the globe's myriad simmering wars... hilariously relaxed."

— New York Observer

"Only Bob could make a user’s guide to our increasingly hostile world this absorbing, this breezy, and—ultimately—this hopeful.”

— Ken Jennings, author of Brainiac: Adventures in the Curious, Competitive, Compulsive World of Trivia Buffs

“Fascinating, enlightening, and surprisingly: NOT TOTALLY DEPRESSING. A gimlet-eyed look at the world we endure that’s also suitable for enjoying with a gimlet.”

— John Hodgman, author of The Areas of My Expertise
and correspondent for The Daily Show with Jon Stewart

"All three [presidential] candidates should read all three of these [recommended] books, but McCain gets first crack at Bob Harris's "Who Hates Whom“... a lighthearted overview of the insurrections and civil wars in the world today."

— Steven Pinker, author of The Stuff of Thought, in the New York Times Book Review

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Don't let the terrorists win! Vote Ignignokt/Err in '08!

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Thursday, 01 February 2007

A friend of mine called from Boston this morning. Says there's a giant Mooninite billboard not far from where the first device was found. And nobody put it together. Yeesh.

And what's the deal with the media still calling this a "bomb hoax?" It was nothing of the kind. Ever. According to Google News, over 1300 news stories come up currently apply that phrase to this event. But the guys clearly had no intention of anyone thinking these were bombs, and they certainly never made any such claim. So how do the words "bomb hoax" remotely apply to their actions? Those things were up for weeks before the cops in Boston freaked out. The only "bomb hoax" here is on the part of panicky public officials who scared the bejeebus out of thousands of people with their own pronouncements, which they're still repeating, as if they'll magically come true:

"It's clear the intent was to get attention by causing fear and unrest that there was a bomb in that location," Assistant Attorney General John Grossman said at their arraignment.

These things had been up for three weeks in cities all over the country, and nobody freaked out. Except the officials in Boston. And yet the AG claims there was "clear intent" to scare people? Bullshit. That's who's pretending there's any bomb story here. There's your bomb hoax right there. Compare and contrast to the rest of the country:

In Seattle and several suburbs, the removal of the signs was low-key. "We haven't had any calls to 911 regarding this," Seattle police spokesman Sean Whitcomb said Wednesday.

Police in Philadelphia said they believed their city had 56 devices.

The New York Police Department removed 41 of the devices -- 38 in Manhattan and three in Brooklyn, according to spokesman Paul Browne. The NYPD had not received any complaints.

But the bigshots of Boston now have to pretend it's someone else's fault -- the alternative would be a public admission of their own panicky incompetence, and we sure as hell know that's not coming. So instead, they're now gonna waste even more of the public's time and resources by angrily trying to cover their own asses.

Authorities are investigating whether Turner or other companies should be criminally charged, Attorney General Martha Coakley said. "We're not going to let this go without looking at the further roots of how this happened to cause the panic in this city," Coakley said.

How about trying a mirror?