(More) News of the Stupid
Here. Beantown, the launching point for the World Trade Center attacks, emerges as a hotbed of faux terrorism.
Star Anna Simpson of Hawaii approached an information booth at Terminal C about 8 a.m. wearing a black, hooded sweatshirt with a lit circuit board connected to a 9-volt battery, inquiring about an inbound Continental Airlines flight. In her hand, she was also carrying a 5- to 6-ounce glob of what turned out to be Play-Doh.
The booth attendant repeatedly asked what she was wearing, and Simpson called it art and left to look for her boyfriend, who was flying in from Oakland, Calif.
When Simpson didn’t find him, she left the building, disconnecting the battery on her sweatshirt as she went, and began to walk toward a T stop. Suddenly, she found herself surrounded by police armed with MP5 automatic machine guns ordering her to hold her hands up and not move.
“Thankfully, because she followed our directions, she is in a jail cell right now instead of the morgue,” State Police Maj. Scott Pare said.
Thankfully, because cops don’t have to walk around with the blood of a stupid college student on their hands. Though Simpson’s martyrdom might have had a deterent effect on other idiot Americans.
Beantown of course is where these idiots posted crudely duct-taped electronic devices with wires hanging out of them, then videotaped the fun as dozens of cops were tied up for hours, along with thousands of drivers. More recently, these guys:
The Logan scare was the second MIT-related incident that has created chaos this month. On Sept. 6, a cleanup crew working the banks of the Charles River was burned when it retrieved metallic sodium. Although the exact source of the substance remains under investigation, the annual “sodium drop” is a tradition for MIT students.
Yesterday, MIT released a statement calling Simpson’s actions “reckless.”
A member of the MIT Electric Research Society, Simpson’s on-campus club, said she did nothing wrong. “Boston is full of idiots who think LEDs are bombs,” he said.
Boston endured a major security scare Jan. 31, when authorities discovered dozens of battery-powered devices around the city that turned out to be part of a promotion for the Cartoon Network.
“Enough with the guerrilla art. It’s irresponsible. . . . What did she actually think was going to happen?” asked Juliette Kayyem, undersecretary of Homeland Security.To Alyson Low, whose 28-year-old sister Sara was a flight attendant on one of the planes hijacked six years ago, yesterday’s drama was “painful” to watch.
“She had better be given a jail cell surrounded by the photographs of all the people who left that airport and never came back,” Low said. “With freedom comes responsibility. And she showed none.”
Here’s more on Simpson:
“In a sentence, I’m an inventor, artist, engineer and student. I love to build things and I love crazy ideas,” Simpson wrote on her MIT Web site.
Howie on the brainiacs of Boston, “Stop me if you’ve heard this one before.”
Welcome Catmeat Blairites, asalaamu aleikum! So good to see you. Come on in. This catmeat does not know when to be eaten by dogs! Ahmadinejad, so like Hitler! More like this! Have you not heard of the War of the Villages? Come play with Bashir and friends! Famous last words, said Marcel Marceau. Now that’s what I call a Magnificent Failure!
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 8:53 am Comments (7) on Saturday, September 22, 2007
7 Responses to “(More) News of the Stupid”
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September 22nd, 2007 at 9:40 am
The stunt must have been greeted with hilarity by her fellow undergraduates. Poke the bear and make him growl. But the smiles must be fading for this young woman about now as she contemplates the criminal record she will drag around for the rest of her life. It can be a damned nuisance when being interviewed for employment.
September 22nd, 2007 at 10:56 am
[...] OF THE WEEK: Jules Crittenden on the Fauxicide Bomber. MIT gal, [...]
September 22nd, 2007 at 12:30 pm
I have to agree with Howie Carr. Somebody needs to make an example to stop this kind of stupidity, or at least slow it down. Forget the police shooting her. She’s lucky a group of passengers-to-be didn’t take her down and stomp the crap out of her.
I hope she gets a little jail time, if only to wipe the smug smirk off her face.
September 22nd, 2007 at 3:04 pm
Insufferable twit. I suppose a high IQ doesn’t mean one actually owns intelligence.
It’s hard to make the young people understand the gravity of our situation when so many of those who are old enough to know better do not.
September 22nd, 2007 at 7:41 pm
Did the Big Dig release some kind of noxious gas or something? Course, that wouldn’t explain all that went before.
September 23rd, 2007 at 7:55 pm
This girl is an MIT undergraduate – very bright, but clearly she thinks her effluvia doesn’t stink. Unfortunately for her, the feds sound like they’re going to make an example of her, to deter others who may be thinking of pulling such pranks. She may well be facing prison time, a hefty fine, and a criminal record – which means that she can forget about any job that requires security clearance. A hell of a punishment for an undergraduate prank, but we live in serious times.
But as the DHS spokesperson pointed out, it could have been much, much worse: she easily might be on her way to the cemetery now.
September 24th, 2007 at 12:44 pm
Hey, even MIT has a short bus.