<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html charset=windows-1252"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div class="blog_entry_meta" style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 8px; clear: both; color: rgb(153, 153, 153); font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align: left; "><div class="date_block" style="padding: 0px 7px 0px 16px; margin: 0px 0px 0px -15px; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; font-family: ProximaNova-ExtrabldIt, sans-serif; color: rgb(248, 239, 236); background-color: rgb(234, 85, 45); display: inline-block; text-transform: uppercase; position: relative; "><div class="entry_month" style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px; display: inline; letter-spacing: 1px; ">APR </div><div class="entry_date" style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px; display: inline; letter-spacing: 1px; ">16, </div><div class="entry_year" style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px; display: inline; letter-spacing: 1px; ">2013</div></div><h1 style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px; ">The Morning After</h1><div class="entry_author" style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px 5px 0px 0px; float: left; font-weight: bold; ">By <a href="http://www.esquire.com/archives/blogs/politics/by_author/68/15;1" style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px; color: rgb(64, 182, 240); text-decoration: none; ">Charles P. Pierce</a></div><div class="entry_time" style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px; text-transform: lowercase; font-weight: bold; ">at 9:00<span style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px; ">am</span></div></div><div class="blog_entry" style="padding: 0px 0px 10px; margin: 0px; text-align: left; "><div class="blog_image image_614" style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; width: 614px; "><img src="http://www.esquire.com/cm/esquire/misc/Vn/esq-boston-marathon-newspapers-0413-xlg" style="padding: 0px; margin: 5px; vertical-align: bottom; border: none; float: left; clear: both; "><div class="caption" style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px; "><div style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px; ">Darren McCollester/Getty Images</div></div></div><div style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px; "><font face="Verdana"><strong style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px; ">Was I on acid, or was</strong> the first question at the eight o'clock press conference dealing with the Boston Marathon bombing last night really somebody's asking Governor Deval Patrick whether the attack on the spectators was a "false-flag" operation?</font></div><div style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px; "><font face="Verdana"><br></font></div><div style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px; "><font face="Verdana">Why, no, It turns out <a href="http://www.mediaite.com/tv/watch-heckler-interrupts-boston-bombing-presser-with-accusations-of-false-flag-staged-attack/" target="_blank" style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px; color: rgb(191, 1, 3); text-decoration: none; ">I was quite sober after all</a>.</font></div><div style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px; "><font face="Verdana"><br></font></div><blockquote style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px; "><font face="Verdana">"Is this another false flag attack to take our civil liberties away?"</font></blockquote><blockquote style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px; "><font face="Verdana"><br></font></blockquote><div style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px; "><font face="Verdana">Oh, dear Jesus, the very first question? You have to be kidding me. Is this country really that far around the bend?</font></div><div style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px; "><font face="Verdana"><br></font></div><div style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px; "><font face="Verdana">I took a little incoming last night, not only from <a href="http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2013/04/awful-esquire-mag-blames-patriots-day-supporters-for-the-boston-bomb-blasts/#disqus_thread" target="_blank" style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px; color: rgb(191, 1, 3); text-decoration: none; ">The Dumbest Man On The Internet,</a> (tm/The Lovely Wonkette) but <a href="http://www.examiner.com/article/cnn-esquire-blame-the-right-wing-for-boston-marathon-bombing?cid=rss" target="_blank" style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px; color: rgb(191, 1, 3); text-decoration: none; ">also from people who</a> can't read and see words that are not there, and from (I think) the Glenn Beck crew <a href="http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/boston-marathon-bombing-041513" target="_blank" style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px; color: rgb(191, 1, 3); text-decoration: none; ">for this post </a>that I put up almost immediately after the bombing and in which, you will note, the words "rightwing," "rightist," and "conservative," do not appear. (Also, a Pro Tip for the folks who dropped by from Glennbeckystanstan. I was a left-leaning sports columnist at a Murdoch tabloid for five years. I've know from political invective and you kids really need to step up your game.) It appears that poor Nick Kristof <a href="http://www.politico.com/blogs/media/2013/04/the-boston-explosions-politicized-161700.html" target="_blank" style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px; color: rgb(191, 1, 3); text-decoration: none; ">got in more trouble </a>than I did. Hey, Nick. You write for<em style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px; "> The New York Times. </em>You should feel more free to tell pipsqueaks like the guy from <em style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px; ">Tiger Beat On The Potomac</em> to piss off. Fk the begrudgers, as the late Mr. Behan used to say. You were right, too. Remember Charlie Skinner from <em style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px; ">The Newsroom</em>, and the only truly memorable line in that entire series so far.</font></div><div style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px; "><font face="Verdana"><br></font></div><div style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px; "><font face="Verdana">"I am too old to live my life in fear of dumb people."</font></div><div style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px; "><font face="Verdana"><br></font></div><div style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px; "><font face="Verdana">It is in no way "politicizing" the events by mentioning that history teaches us that, on events like this, the universe of suspects is wider than many people would like to believe. All indications are that, one way or another, the bombing was a political act. It may have been the political act of madmen, but it was a political act, and it does us no good to pretend — as Chris Matthews attempted to do last night — that it was not. Somehow, somewhere, this act came from a dark vein of violence in <em style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px; ">somebody's</em> politics. Those politics may be fashioned from mania, or even sociopathy, but they are fashioned out of politics nonetheless, and of the collapse of the faith that we can govern ourselves as we govern our passions, and that collapse is not the province of the mad or the angry. That collapse is caused by something deeply endemic in our systems and in ourselves. We have tolerated unreasoning hatred for far too long. We have abandoned the rational for the comfortable, and we have abandoned the empirical for the comfortably insane. We have given too much oxygen to the flame. We have given too much</font></div><div style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px; "><font face="Verdana"><br></font></div><div style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px; "><font face="Verdana">By six last night, you could tell the Feds were taking over the operation in and around Copley Square. The uniformed Boston cops were back out in the street, and a lot of people in windbreakers and earpieces popped up from around every corner, and the silly argument about whether the president should have said "terrorism" or not seemed particularly moot. Terrorism is in the mind of the terrorized, and there was nobody idly walking through Copley Square as Monday evening became Monday night. The sun came up this morning on a garrisoned city. Some people think one thing about that, and some people think another. But too many people think something completely insane, and that scares the hell out of me. In our politics, we must we must look the real monster in the eye, and not create phantoms because they are more easily killed. We have lost faith in that in which we cannot lose faith and survive. As investigators crawl over Copley Square, they might as well be looking for the democratic soul of a nation gone a bit mad.</font></div></div><span style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: left; "><br style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px; "><br style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px; ">Read more: <a href="http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/morning-after-boston-bombings-041613#ixzz2QkDKfBQD" style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); text-decoration: none; ">Morning After Boston Bombings - The Morning After - Esquire</a> <a href="http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/morning-after-boston-bombings-041613#ixzz2QkDKfBQD" style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); text-decoration: none; ">http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/morning-after-boston-bombings-041613#ixzz2QkDKfBQD</a></span></body></html>