“I have no idea what a real bomb looks like,” writes a blogger at machinist.salon.com, “but I don’t think it’s a plastic board with a 9-volt battery on it.”
19 year old M.I.T. student, Star Simpson showed up at Logan International Airport Friday to pick up a friend. Such an event would not normally kick up an international news storm, but Simpson had not taken the general stupidity index into account; something we’re apparently required to do now.
She was wearing a black sweat shirt with a white plastic board attached. The board itself, known as a socket or bread-board, is a familiar site to decades of engineering and science students and hobbyists. On college campuses throughout the country fall delivers chillier weather, colored leaves, and students with socket-boards, 9-volt batteries, and little flashing lights. But – as if we needed further proof – not everyone gets the joke: “Socket to me” written on a sweat shirt with a socket-board attached; not even when you add the title of the school course you’re in.
Even if you have never taken a logic course in engineering, in our abundantly technological society, there isn’t much of an excuse for over-reacting. What’s next – grandpa gets tasered for the flashing Rudolf nose on his Christmas tie? Walk in the park, grandpa! Star was taken at gun-point, an exercise that included troopers with submachine guns. Good thing she cooperated, it has been observed, or she would probably be dead.
The woman at the information desk who started things off really cannot be blamed. I can certainly believe that everyone who works in airports has been trained to be on the lookout for suspicious articles. If she couldn’t identify the device, it’s not terribly difficult to understand that she would report it. State troopers, hearing of a suspected bomb in an airport, would quite naturally show up prepared. But now, in the calm light of day, when it is clear that it was just a misunderstanding, the idiots among us can’t let it go. Thank something – at least they’ve let her out on bail.
Star; you don’t get it yet. You’ve done well enough academically to have made it into the second year of M.I.T.’s electrical engineering and computer science program. If you were called a nerd in high school, it was nothing. In this big adult world, you will be surrounded by idiots for the rest of your life, and they will be in powerful positions. If you need more perspective on that, just think; “Dan Rather.” It’s not just Dan. Somebody hired him. Millions of people watched and listened to him every night. It goes on and on. It’ll drive you crazy if you let it.
It’s unfair, I know. Back when I was a kid, it was compassionate to look out for those less fortunate. But, when they screwed up, it was clearly their fault and they had to take the consequences. Today however – idiots control everything (thanks Dan). The world is a very different place.
You have an obligation to care for them, to protect them, and whatever you do – try not to confuse them. They can become quite dangerous. The worst thing is if you show “insensitivity” to them. This is when you assume that they’ll understand something that’s really really obvious to you, and then it turns out that they don’t. They’ll blame it on you, of course. That’s what every little smirk and joke is about. There are many people who are not able to comprehend things that seem really really obvious to you; including the humor – Socket to me! Star – honey – they really don’t get it and they’re not going to; and – for lack of a better alternative – they’re going to continue to give you a hard time until they feel better about themselves.
Rate this post:
(No Ratings Yet)
Loading ...
Stumble It!
Gus said,
Personally I think that Miss Simpson was arrogant and stupid. She is a student a a fine university and therefore should know what’s going on in the real world. I hope she gets the maximum penalty. Sadly, you might be in the same class as she is. Imams saying prayers in the Minnneapolis airport aren’t going to hurt anyone either but with the images of 9/11 seared into our souls, anything that reminds of that horrible day (you do agree it was a horrible day, don’t you?)
I have a degree in Philosophy with Honors from the Univeristy of Rochester and I don’t know what a socket board is.
She was trying to pull off a poorly conceived “in-joke” to show that she was a member of “the elite” the same way as the nit-wit in Florida did his “Don’t tase me” routine”
I took a course in sculpture at a local university last year with some undergraduates. There was no talk about Iraq. And I mean none. There was plenty of talk about the “coolest hooror flicks” that they had seen recently.
Academics, both students and teachers, live in a phantasy land, ignorant of the past , the dangers of the present and what might go wrong in the future.
Anyone who has walkied the streets of Old Jerusalem and seen the eyes of young Muslim men who intrusively ask you the name of your God, and I have, is aware of all 3 of the above.
People who defend them should think about that.
September 22, 2007 at 2:27 pm
Gus said,
By the way, Rog, do you and the brilliant Miss Simpson realize that we are in a world war with Islam?
September 22, 2007 at 2:37 pm
The Vicar said,
Good article, but I have to side a little on what Gus has to say too.
Unfortunately we live on a world with a lot of stupid people doing stupid things—sometimes over and over.
Star Simpson is just one of them. She’s very lucky not to have gotten shot.
September 22, 2007 at 4:07 pm
The Vicar said,
September 22, 2007 at 5:45 pm
Lloyd Selberg said,
I’m with Roger on this one. At the root of our nation’s problems is a general underlying stupidity of the average American.
When 28 percent of polled New Yorkers tell “Power of Ten” TV show that “Andrew Lloyd Weber wrote Shakespeare’s, A Mid-summer Night’s Dream,” we have a problem. Clearly 28 percent of New Yorkers don’t know who is buried in Grant’s tomb. How long can a democratic society survive when the majority of those voting are literally uneducated fools prone to act on self-serving feelings?
“One trend that bothers me is the glorification of stupidity, that it’s all right not to know anything.” - Carl Sagan
Gus says: “Academics, both students and teachers, live in a phantasy (sic) land, ignorant of the past, the dangers of the present and what might go wrong in the future.”
Who do we attribute this decline in academics to? I suggest it’s directly related to the radical feminist that live in a fantasy world where reason and logic no longer apply and the males that passively support the notion that men and women are interchangeable equivalents to keep their jobs.
While we can congratulate Ms. Simpson for acceptance to MIT, and acknowledge her belief that no one could be so stupid as to believe a decorated breadboard with LEDs and a battery a bomb, it hardly represents the kind of humor commensurate with the nerds that traditionally attend MIT. She wouldn’t be at MIT without affirmative action.
September 22, 2007 at 7:16 pm
amfortas said,
September 22, 2007 at 7:53 pm
Roger F. Gay said,
– Who says? That idea was merely a quick rationalization in support of a presumptious conclusion. It’s subjectively simpler to place clear blame - it makes life seem much more black & white. You have a what? Philosophy degree with honors? I guess you’re qualified to talk about academics in phantasy land.
September 23, 2007 at 2:43 am
Roger F. Gay said,
September 23, 2007 at 5:06 am
Roger F. Gay said,
September 23, 2007 at 5:09 am
NotNOW said,
Cops are getting meaner and meaner. But let’s give them the benefit of the doubt here, and say that they got a call about a bomb-wearing girl. I am sure they scampered ass with guns drawn. Training prevented them from shooting the poor kid. And when you run to a situation that was called in as a bomb-wearing suspect in an airport, by the time you get there I am sure you are pumped as hell.
To the cops who responded: thanks for being there, and thanks for having the restraint to not kill this time.
September 23, 2007 at 6:51 am
Roger F. Gay said,
September 23, 2007 at 8:00 am
Kyle said,
Pray tell me, what is the maximum penalty for wearing a non-bomb on your shirt? I would hope nothing, but then again one never knows. She has already been through quite enough, I think.
As for arrogance and stupidity, she was probably dressed the same way she is when she goes to class. What’s arrogant and stupid about that? Or do we now have to dress up to go to the airport? I hope not.
Of course, if terrorists went into airports with attention getting devices in plain view it would make catching them a lot easier. I wonder why they haven’t thought of that.
Kyle
September 23, 2007 at 8:33 am
Roger F. Gay said,
She wore the thing all day that day before on campus (career day). Nobody thought it looked like a bomb. It was a non-event. Apparently her boyfriend was out of town. My guess is that she wanted to wear it when she met him, or just enjoyed it enough to wear it another day.
Nice job by NECN Boston I think - including interviews with other MIT students. The one major screw-up was in a reporter’s intro to the interviews. Star Simpson had never been associated with college pranks “until now.” Who’s associating her with that - reporters.
By contrast, another reporter comments after she leaves the courthouse - everyone’s wondering what she was thinking - but as we could see, she rushed out of the courthouse to a car without comment. Very smart and sophisticated for a reporter to identify the right question and admit not knowing the answer.
September 23, 2007 at 8:45 am
Gus said,
Star Simpson should have known that. Naturally no one thought it was a bomb at MIT but in the context of an airport where people have not taken courses in electronics and perhaps aren’t blessed with superior intelligence (and, judging by some of the above responses, the arrogance that goes with it) the apparatus takes on a different meaning.
Miss Simpson’s actions fit into the “mind-games” that plague the world at present whether its Russian bombers flirting with Wake Island, the imams in
Minneapolis or the Iranian President wanting to visit Ground Zero. They are political strategems in the first 2 cases but they are once again, Mr Gay, in Miss Simpson’s case indicative of the gross and dangerous ignorance of the academic population of just what is going on in the world.
Mr Gay, if she was not trying to pull off an “in-joke” and I believe she was , she is unaware of the hell that that flying has become beause of airport security.
And Roger, she lives in Hawaii. She must be aware of that.
Either she was playing joke or ignorant (and I take the point of the father of two teen-agers. However having worked for 27 years with teen-agers, I find it hard to believe that even they would be dumb enough to do what Miss Simpson did)
In either case it shows a pathetic and dangerous immaturity as do many of her other statements, by the way.
September 23, 2007 at 1:06 pm
Gus said,
The pedigree of undergraduates acting foolishly in serious matters goes back to 1968 when college students put on their show in and more importantly would not let Hubert Humphrey make his speech.
That’s not kids’ stuff. The 60’s are over and it is amazing how many of that generaion, even though they are now between roughly 40 and 60, aren’t aware of that.
They are ignorant of history, real life and, most of all, themselves.
September 23, 2007 at 1:26 pm
Freedom Now said,
Please view things in context.
Star Simpson needs to educate herself.
September 23, 2007 at 7:06 pm
Lloyd Selberg said,
I’m not sure what you are implying by your comment regarding the hippy generation, but it appears that you are angry at the hippy generation and associate Ms. Simpson’s behavior as similar behavior. Little question that the hippy generation was directly associated with women asserting themselves, bra burning and war protest and the feminist expression of feelings equivalent to facts. At 63, I lived the generation and also find it reprehensible. I was all but living in a chemistry lab at KU while the majority of my peers were out protesting.
I also spent years observing the UMKC medical school where an idiot MD stated the medical school with the idea of taking in smart 18 year olds and producing medical doctors of these students at age 24. Education doesn’t equate with wisdom. We now have generations of monkey see, monkey do doctors.
Young adults will act like young adults, irresponsible and self centered regardless of innate intelligence especially if not taught responsibility at an early age. Ms. Simpson was just acting her age. It takes years to become smart enough to realize just how ignorant we are regardless of how intelligent and educated. Direct your anger at the adults that accept no responsibility, refuse to fault ignorance and have produced a societal victim mentality.
We should be thankful that she didn’t get hurt and forget the matter. Her actions are trivial compared to the MIT student that developed PGP encryption and gave it away with the belief that everyone should have the right to communicate without big brother snooping.
I’m sure her attempt at humor was considered stupid by most MIT students and simply ignored. Is it expecting too much of the general public to see her idea of humor as it is, more for the educated public than those of exceptional education and knowledge?
I was building electronic projects including a home made X-ray tube and making gun power, playing with mercury and all sorts of chemicals considered worthy of HazMat mobilization today while in high school. My father taught high school chemistry and physics. The stupidity of the pubic is more a problem than the educated young. While in high school I was trained in the use of firearms by the munitions officer of local police department. No one had a problem with me in possession of deadly weapons. What has changed?
Are you so feminized that you can’t see Ms. Simpson’s side and believe everyone must act in a manner such that no fool can consider your actions threatening?
September 23, 2007 at 10:27 pm
Roger F. Gay said,
No one is saying that the people at the airport acted inapropriately. I like the way one MIT student put it. It was silly, he said. Another event in which Boston mistook light emitting diodes for a bomb. (There was another such incident earlier - very silly it turned out.) But he said - if the same thing happened tomorrow, they should respond in the same way. Better safe than sorry - and everyone is impressed that troopers handled the situation without hurting anyone - as well as the wisdom of Star Simpson (at that point) in being completely cooperative.
The article focuses on the aftermath. It’s over. We’re safe. Time for an honest assessment of the event - and let’s move on. It shouldn’t be all about the general public fear at this point, and reporters should not spread rumors about her alleged motives and character.
September 24, 2007 at 4:00 am
The Vicar said,
She knew what reaction her actions would bring and now she will have her day in court.
Not much will come of it but she will always be remembered as the kid that pulled a bonehead stunt at Logan that almost got her shot.
September 24, 2007 at 5:50 am
Roger F. Gay said,
Know Star was right about what? Pull a similar stunt? There is no evidence that Star Simpson intended to pull a stunt - or thought of the bread board on her sweat shirt as a “fake bomb.” Any chance you might allow a presumption of innocense rather than pushing to punish Star, Lloyd, and me for the feelings you have in response to the news?
September 24, 2007 at 6:00 am
christianj said,
While frisking nuns may be an interesting twist on security, this idiot needs to have the book thrown at her just for being stupid. What do they teach at Universities these days besides “wimmin’s studies” ?
September 24, 2007 at 6:25 am
Lloyd Selberg said,
There aren’t and never will be enough airport security to prevent MIT students from devising ways to use commercial aircraft as weapons if that was their motive. When is society going to figure out what engineers have known for decades: It’s impossible to make things fool proof, as fools have been proven most ingenious.
It’s misandry and the demonization of male behavior by feminist that is the problem and the belief that everything dangerous is evil. GUNS DON’T KILL PEOPLE, IRRESPONSIBLE STUPIDITY DOES!
Almost everything in our technological world is potentially deadly. Our feminized society would limit the amount of water entering each home to insure that children don’t drown in bathtubs when left unattended. It sounds good and would make work for uneducated idiots to further monitor our behavior.
If the average man with common mechanical skills assembled cribs, common sense would prevent recalls and infant deaths. Demonizing fathers and denying them access to their children is the problem. Denial of the differences in male and female thinking is again the problem.
An element of “buyer beware” is necessary and those too stupid to accept any responsibly would be eliminated by natural selection.
“If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be. If we are to guard against ignorance and remain free, it is the responsibility of every American to be informed.” - Thomas Jefferson
September 24, 2007 at 7:33 am
Roger F. Gay said,
– Once again, condemning (in hindsight) without evidence.
September 24, 2007 at 8:05 am
Roger F. Gay said,
September 24, 2007 at 8:14 am
Gus said,
What is so complicated about seeing that Miss Simpson was either;
a.) pulling a prank in which case she was incredibly stupid and naive or
b.) was not pulling a prank in which case she was also incredibly stupid and naive?
There are no other possibilities.
She lives in Hawaii, for God’s sake. How does she visit home? By magic carpet? She must be aware that airports are probably the most security sensitive locations in our country.
Mr Selberg, you are correct to say that I am angry at the Baby Boom Generation. When you talk about the dangers of the uneducated public, look what the Baby Boom generation has left behind it: an inability to distinguish between men and women, a society with no respect for limits and the denigration of men but most dangerous of all is the inability to recognize evil in the same way that the liberals of the 20’s and 30’s were unable to recognize the true nature of Hitler and Stalin.
There are young men and women fighting what I believe to be a necessary war in Iraq and who are the same age as Miss Simpson. They are not cut any slack by the terrorists who are trying to kill them.
At 19 she is not a teen-ager and certainly old enough and, as a student at MIT, smart to know exactly what she was doing. It is not expecting too much to ask of a person in her situation to realize that we are in a world war with Islam that is likely to continue for a long time. If anything, she especially should know better.
Frankly, I do not understand your sentence about my being so feminized that I can’t understand her point of view.
Finally, there are two themes that bother me in this discussion (in addition, of course, to Mr Gay’s ignorant comment about philosophy. I must assume that he has never heard of Socrates, Descartes and Camus to name a few pretty smart philosophers).
First, we are now in a time when the two most important questions are the war being waged against us by the Islamic terrorists and tacitly supported by much of Islam and also the question of immigration. Nothing, absolutely nothing, is more important than these two dangers.
Second, I get a sense that there is too much respect for the intellect for intellectual attainments. I hesitate to say something like that when our schools have turned into indoctrination centers for liberalism but intellectual gifts are morally neutral. I assume we have all heard of Albert Speer of Nazi fame and the Lithuanian Nobel Poet Laureate notes that many of the Khmer Rouge were graduates of the Sorbonne.
Allow me to conclude with a quote made by Socrates (you can look him up at Wikipedia, Mr Gay) to the citizens of Athens who were accusing him of corrupting Athenian youth, “For it does not matter, fellow citizens, whether you live long or for a brief time, whether you are rich or poor or whether you are in good health or bad but only whether you behave as a good man or a bad one.”
He could have also said whether you are dumb or smart.
September 24, 2007 at 10:51 am
Roger F. Gay said,
September 24, 2007 at 11:32 am
greree said,
September 24, 2007 at 9:11 pm
Gus said,
Your thinking amazes me and not in a positive sense. It is not a question of defining people who don’t think as I do as it is a question of thinking what most reasonable people would think in this situation. Stop playing St George in defending Miss Simpson.
There are for logical people only two possibilities in this situation, and I emphasize, “in this situation”, as I have said. In either one she come out looking very bad and lucky to be alive.
Re-read greree’s post. Were the security people and their defenders so stupid?
September 25, 2007 at 10:51 am
Roger F. Gay said,
September 25, 2007 at 1:34 pm
Lloyd Selberg said,
You write: “Frankly, I do not understand your sentence about my being so feminized that I can’t understand her point of view.”
The fear hysteria that pervades much of society is a truly feminine quality. Women demand that the government protect them from every possible danger, from an unwanted male advance, to an actual deadly release of some natural product. Men are the risk takers and most live and learn from the experiences of others. Without taking educated risk, nothing proceeds in scientific research.
What one doesn’t understand, one fears. When one lives and works in an environment with potentially deadly materials and has the understanding of how they work, they are no longer threatening. Lack of understanding and ignorance are the major cause of fear. Terrorist play on the fear factor. Ms. Simpson lives in an educated world that doesn’t see a bomb when there is no bomb.
You write: “First, we are now in a time when the two most important questions are the war being waged against us by the Islamic terrorists and tacitly supported by much of Islam and also the question of immigration. Nothing, absolutely nothing, is more important than these two dangers.”
If you actually believe the above statement, you are simply and uneducated fool. Theses dangers are so far down on the list of actual dangers to western civilization as to be moot when related to the support for equality of the ignorant and the feminist promotion of androgyny. When politicians must play to the wishes of self-serving uneducated fools that can’t see the obvious complimentary differences in the genders and promote gender completion, society is sure to fail without help from Islamic terrorist or immigrants.
September 26, 2007 at 10:32 am
Adel said,
Just wondering how we jumped from talking about the stupidity of one MIT student to the bashing of females in general. I guess it never occurred to you that some females might also be experts in handling guns, hunting, and generally taking care of themselves. I am NOT talking about feminists–these women are married, have children and jobs, and are often disgusted with the constant implication that individuals are criminals or indigents because our government did not take care of them. If you are at all familiar with the existentialists, you would see that accepting responsibility for your life should be a human trait in general and has absolutely nothing to do with whether you are male or female.
September 26, 2007 at 10:36 am
Adel said,
September 26, 2007 at 10:37 am
Roger F. Gay said,
September 26, 2007 at 3:15 pm