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in which i compare terrorism and angry protestors to a Leonard Bernstein musical

Lileks: I’ve no reason to say this, but: my antennae are twitching. I have this feeling that 2004 is going to feel a lot like 1968. But it’s just a feeling.

The above quote stems from his discussion on the Great Blog Blackout of 2003. I was all set to dismiss the idea that the DOS attacks on Hosting Matters was somehow a harbinger of things to come. I mentally scoffed at the thought that blogs were of any importance in great War Against America.

To quote Lileks again, It’s like hearing reports from Alaska radar stations of peculiar blips on the screen. Someone’s testing something.

I've been living with this feeling of unease for about two weeks now. It's like that phantom tarantula that crawls up your arm when you are watching a documentary on spiders.

Remember Tony in West Side Story? He finishes up work at the drug store and Riff tries to talk him into going to the dance. But Tony's doing the dance for one, that stalwart of movie musicals. He gallops down the street, swings around the streetlamps and sings:

Could be!
Who knows?
There's something due any day
I will know, right away
Soon as it shows
It may come cannonballing down
Through the sky
Gleam in its eye, bright as rose
Who knows?

Of course for Tony, that something was something good. It was Maria, feeling, oh so pretty.

There's no Maria in my something. Hell, there's not even a Rita Moreno. Oh, there's a dance, alright. And that dance, just like the one at the school with the Sharks and the Jets, will have two enemies dancing around each other, aligning themselves, creating too much tension.

There will be a rumble soon. Perhaps the DOS attack is just the pre-dance routine. It's Bernardo feeling out Riff, trying to see what he's made of.

There's a definite rumble coming. There's gangs lining up on every side; the terrorists here, the protestors there, the pro-war people, the Jew-haters, the Death To America crowd, the extremists and Bush haters; it's showdown time in the back alley!

We've been dancing too long. The tension in the gym, all decorated with flags and anti-flags, depending on which side you are standing on, well, its become unbearable. We're gonna rumble like it's 1968.

Bernardo has sent his henchmen out to scan the possibilities, throw a few wrenches in the cogs. Bernardo is watching to see how the Jets react. Bernardo is moving in, slowly, steadily, more subtle this time than last. It's just a matter of figuring out who our Bernardo is. Muslims? The anti-war crowd? North Korea? So many gang leaders, so little time to prepare the right defense.

Something's comin',
Don't know when
But it's soon

September, 2004, New York City. Right now that's the likeliest place for the dance to end and the real fighting to begin.

[Update: I should clarify that I really don't think the DOS attacks are anything more than America-haters with their panties in a bunch. However, it has just added to my sense of foreboding. In all honesty, I think our greatest threat to national security right now would come from an uprising within our country. See, 1968. As James said.]

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» Now that I'm aggregating... from Arguing with signposts...
I find it annoying that the "syndicate this site" info is at the bottom of the column on most sites, like this one, or this one, or this one. Or mine. This guy has his in the middle of the... [Read More]

» Now that I'm aggregating... from Arguing with signposts...
I find it annoying that the "syndicate this site" info is at the bottom of the column on most sites, like this one, or this one, or this one. Or mine. This guy has his in the middle of the... [Read More]

» Someone else shares my trepidation from Swanky Conservative
Michelle at A Small Victory has that same feeling I mentioned in my post below about Tuesday's DOS attack on Hosting Matters: September, 2004, New York City. Right now that's the likeliest place for the dance to end and the... [Read More]

» Random Linkage from Res Ipsa Loquitur
--Paul has an outstanding example of "When Spandex Goes Bad". --Michele sezs she's getting that feeling that something wicked this... [Read More]

» Someone else shares my trepidation from Swanky Conservative
Michelle at A Small Victory has that same feeling I mentioned in my post below about Tuesday's DOS attack on Hosting Matters: September, 2004, New York City. Right now that's the likeliest place for the dance to end and the... [Read More]

» Denied - A fair chunk from Shot In The Dark
Denied - A fair chunk of the blogosphers - especially some of the most popular sites, including the Northern Alliance's own Powerline - were hamstrung by a Denial of Service attack yesterday. The attacks are apparently traced to Al-Quaeda-linked hacker... [Read More]

Comments

"We're gonna rumble like it's 1968."

Remember Ted Rall's prediction that the 2004 elections would be cancelled?

Argh.

Wait...so someone DOS'd a hosting provider because it was American and had American Weblogs? Well...stranger things have happened. However, I find it more likely that it was some teeniebopper wannabe in his basement in America just having some scripts with his brand new Zombie bots because American companies and people are too damn slow to apply patches to their systems.

As to attributing this to a new wave of terror or something similiar, thats kinda ridiculus. Its like seeing a branch fall off a tree and thereby saying the forest is going to collapse on itself. There's too many variables and FAR too little facts.

Not saying it isn't true, not saying its not gonna happen. We all know it will but why get our panties in a twist over it? There's nothing you can do about it and nothing I can do about it.

Chris:

The site that the DDoS was aimed at, both last week and yesterday, is Internet Haganah.

The latest info on it I've seen said that the majority of the attack was coming from Malaysia

http://windsofchange.net/archives/004184.html.

Ok, I apologize - I did a little checking around and I have to agree with you. Sorry, shooting my mouth off earlier doesn't often turn out well ;)

Nothing Ted Rall predicts will ever come true, unless he predicts that history will remember him, if at all, as a bitter little dork of negligible talent.

I don't go along with the Lileks hypothesis that someone is "testing something." This was not a new trick, and it was executed in a way that was likely to get the government's notice and spur efforts to come up with an antidote. Not a bright way to test a weapon you want to use later for a bigger purpose.

The attack does prove that Internet security measures are completely inadequate, however. If we're going to be brave enough to be dependent on the Internet, we need to devote serious effort to making it safe.

Geez, Michele, you have the ability to really scare me like no other blogger I know!

That said, your blog also makes me think a lot more than any other blog I read, so I'm going to go do a little research now...

Michele, it's true that rancorous partisan bickering is rampant, but I really don't see any possibility for a mass uprising that would threaten our national security any time in the foreseeable future. Who would participate in such an insurrection?

I'm not expecting a mass uprising, but the New York GOP convention will not be pretty.

Steve's right - the DOS attacks weren't necessarily a test, but it just felt like something larger was going on. Of course, that's what they'd like everyone to think - Tremble Before the Might Of Al-Qaeda's L33t Haqer Brigage! Which turns out to be the usual moist teens launching scripts at 3 AM while downloading Kill Bill from a Chinese server.

Wow. Lileks himself. I feel honored just to post here now.

I think things are shaking up ominously. That's why you should always hold your political conventions in Philadelphia. See any trouble in 2000 in Philly?

They arrested everyone who not only looked suspicious, but who looked like they might look suspicious in the future. They arrested people with cell phones, they pre-emptively struck the poor puppet makers, they arrested people who ordered swiss cheese on their cheese-steaks and thus proved they were from out of town. Puppet makers!

But hey, it worked.

No one f---s with Philadelphia. NYC should take notes.

No one f-s w/Chicago, either.

It's been a depressing morning. I think this in England:
http://www.jewishcomment.com/cgibin/news.cgi?id=11&command=shownews&newsid=569
and this at Rutgers:
http://brain-terminal.com/video/rutgers-2003-10-11/when-protesters-attack.html
combine with yours and Lilek's comments to form a very ominous picture. There is just so much hate.

No one f---s with Philadelphia.

True. Just ask Santa.

The first time I noticed the DOS attacks was when "right thinking from the left coast" went unavailable on, suprise, the recall election day.
I never thought of it as people testing the waters. "Test these sights, no one pays attention to them anyway". While the primary target will be any Bush related on line site. They'll probably attack those sites at some point in which they think they will do the most damage. dunno.. just babbling.

A rumble? I wish. I'd love to see a politicaly driven civil war. Of course, it might be a little one sided, since the Liberals seem to have an aversion to guns.

Santa was having a bad year and got what was coming to him :)

In all honesty, I think our greatest threat to national security right now would come from an uprising within our country. See, 1968.

And, like 1968, the greatest threat is a paranoid government using it's resources to invade a country and repress any protestors.

I am seriously considering scheduling a vacation in Cancun during the Republican convention, because I imagine that the Main Event will be occurring not-far-enough from where I work in midtown. Besides, Cancun should be recovered from the protesters from this year by then (I know the resort area is okay, but we have to shop in the town for food (and tequila!))

I'm tired of people coming to our city to crap on it.

even if there's no natalie wood (whose time here was cut short and leaves unanswered questions) or rita moreno, maybe we can hope for something a little less malignant than widespread ddos attacks. something like judy tenutta.

Yeah, but first Tony got laid, then he got shot.

Let's use a different song for an example, shall we?