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Not All Terrorists are Muslims, Of Course

Posted: Mon Dec 04, 2006 12:04 am
by Doug
DOUG
While we profile terrorists as Muslims, home-grown nuts tend to get overlooked.

From Jackson, TN:
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McKenzie man told undercover agents he wanted to detonate bomb
Man gets 30 years for bomb plotting

Demetrius "Van" Crocker of McKenzie, convicted in April of attempting to obtain a chemical weapon and possession of stolen explosives, was sentenced to 30 years in prison Tuesday by U.S. District Judge James Todd in Jackson.

Crocker, who told undercover FBI agents of his desire to explode a briefcase bomb while Congress was in session, was found guilty by a jury in about 90 minutes in April.

The 40-year-old farmhand and father of two was convicted of accepting what he thought were ingredients to make Sarin nerve gas and a block of C-4 explosive from undercover agents in October 2004.

Read the rest here.

Posted: Mon Dec 04, 2006 2:52 pm
by Barbara Fitzpatrick
That's the point I bring up every time somebody talks about how we have to "profile" terrorists to protect ourselves from violence. You can't tell a terrorist from the good ol' boy in the next pew over. Science is now telling us human beings are 1/10 of 1% alike genetically. I guess we're going to have to get scientists to point out there's even less difference between "terrorists" and non-terrorists.

Posted: Mon Dec 04, 2006 5:16 pm
by Savonarola
Barbara Fitzpatrick wrote:Science is now telling us human beings are 1/10 of 1% alike genetically.
Safe to say that you have that backward.

Posted: Tue Dec 05, 2006 10:15 am
by Barbara Fitzpatrick
You're right Sav - that's what I get for not proof-reading (and running "2 hares at once"). People are 99.9% genetically identical, and there is more racial difference than there is "terrorist" difference, genetically speaking.

Posted: Tue Dec 05, 2006 12:20 pm
by Savonarola
As a geek, teacher, and science guy myself, Bill Nye is one of my personal heroes. Below are links to the three parts of an episode from his series "The Eyes of Nye" wherein he analyzes the idea of race from a genetic perspective. It's worth everybody's time.

Part 1 (8:29)
Part 2 (7:53)
Part 3 (6:50)