I listen to a decent amount of news on the radio in my car. Usually, I listen to Fox News - mostly because I want to have something to complain about when I’m writing here.
Today’s aggravating story was about the pope. Apparently, the people lining up to see his body are very long. The reporter (keep in mind, Fox News on the radio is basically just the audio broadcast of the TV show, so there are pictures, I just can’t see them) said that where he was, two long lines were converging into another single line that was headed into the building to pass by the pope. The people there had been waiting in line for 3 hours already, and it would likely be another 5 hours in the new line before they got in to see the pope. Ok, fine. But I don’t understand the conversation that started next.
The reporter then started talking about security, specifically the lack of it. Well, I guess he must have been talking about security for the people in line, because, you know, not to put too fine a point on it, but the pope is already dead. But still, what purpose would anyone, terrorist or otherwise, have for hurting all of these people who are lined up to see the pope? What fool would charge up such a holy war? Whoever they were would be completely crushed - the crusades didn’t go so well, and the Christians, now armed with much more high-tech weapons, are looking for payback.
Seriously though, what purpose would hurting those people serve? I guess there are all kinds of crazy people out there, but I really don’t think it’s practical to start putting armed guards at every place where people gather in proportion to the crowd. At some point, people will have to rely on a cooperation against the state of nature just to live their lives.
And then I saw this. Don’t these Fox News people have any real news reporting to do?
Basically, they’re making a big deal out of the findings of investigations about the World Trade Center attack. The reports say that if the fireproofing foam had adhered properly to the steel frame of the building, it might have prevented the building from falling down entirely.
My thought: The buildings might have remained upright if planes had not crashed into them.
Maybe it’s true that the building would have held. Unfortunately it didn’t. There’s no point in shifting any of the blame to building contractors. But sensationalist Fox News has done just that with their headline. It’s disgraceful.
I wonder how many people read just the headline to get their news. Probably too many.
