Somber Linings

Written by Judith Miller, Fox News |

What a difference a decade has made in the nation’s fight against terrorism. It’s impossible to find “silver linings” in an event that killed three, including an eight-year-old boy, and wounded over 175 people. But it’s true nevertheless that the government’s response so far to the twin bombings at the Boston Marathon yesterday has been nothing short of remarkable, and little of it could have happened before September 11. “We now have an array of capacities that we simply didn’t have before,” says R. P. Eddy, a former director of the White House National Security Council who has advised New York’s police department. “Our response to this attack—individually, and at the local, state, and federal level—is totally different.”

To begin with, we now have a clearly understood organization chart. Soon after the 9/11 attacks, President Bush issued an order putting the FBI in charge of investigating domestic terrorism. Today, there are 103 Joint Terrorism Task Forces linking local and state police officers to federal terrorism investigators, including at least one in each of the FBI’s 56 field offices; 71 were established after September 11. The JTTF in Boston is currently sifting through the tips that have poured into the 5,000-member police department. “We’ve invested heavily in expanding the number and capabilities of these vital nodes in our national counterterrorism network,” says Tim Connors, who served as an army officer in Afghanistan and now trains police officers for CAAS LLC, a New York–based consulting firm.

The Apology Tour is Working

Written by Ben Shapiro, Breitbart.com |

A new poll from NBC New York and Marist College says that disgraced former Congressman Anthony Weiner (D-NY), who lied to the American public about tweeting pictures of his junk to random women around the country, is now running a hard second in a potential mayoral matchup. Christine Quinn, the current Speaker of the House in New York, runs first with 26 percent of the vote; Weiner follows with 15 percent. While Nate Silver of the New York Times suggests that this number is actually limp for Weiner, given his 100 percent name recognition, it still gives him a leg up on the rest of the crowd.

It’s no coincidence that Weiner is now preparing to get on his hands and knees before the public in New York. As USA Today reports, Weiner says “I think I’ll be spending a lot of time, here on out, saying I’m sorry.”

The Eyes Don't Have It

Written by Tia Ghose, LiveScience |

It's a cliché that men just don't understand women.

Now, new research suggests men really do struggle to read women's emotions — at least from their eyes.

The research, published Wednesday (April 10) in the journal PLOS ONE, showed that men had twice as much trouble deciphering women's emotions from images of their eyes compared with those of men. Parts of the male brain tied to emotion also didn't activate as strongly when the men looked at women's eyes.

While pop culture claims that men are from Mars and women are from Venus, both sexes are pretty similar. Yet despite the genders' psychological overlap, a few small studies in men have suggested they have trouble "mind-reading" and guessing what women are thinking and feeling. For instance, one study found that men interpret friendliness from women as sexual come-ons. [ Busted! 6 Gender Myths in the Bedroom & Beyond ]

Research also shows that women prize men who try to understand them.

Drive-In's A Thing of the Past?

Written by Melanie Morgan |

My first job was a "runner" for the Leawood Drive-In in suburban Kansas City. For those unfamiliar with a drive-n, you pull your car into a paved parking lot with speakers that can be hung on your window. There is a playground under a giant screen that little kids can clambor over, while the adults grab popcorn and Dr Pepper from the food stand.

Everyone comes back to the car for the feature film, and once the kids are asleep, a good deal of necking went on.

Sigh.

These days appear to be over.

"..COMING SOON: The Summer When You’re Expected to Save Drive-In Movie Theaters.“Later this year, movie studios are scheduled to stop distributing films in old-fashioned 35-millimeter format. Everything will go digital, which is fine for the vast majority of indoor theaters that have already upgraded to digital projectors. It’s a different story with drive-ins, however, many of which find themselves in need of handouts to pay for the upgrade. Care to cough up a $100 donation on top of the cost of popcorn?”

Pray for the Victims, Pray Hard

Written by The Blaze |

Two Brothers Watching Race Lose Legs in Boston Marathon Bombing

An injured woman is tended to at the finish line of the Boston Marathon, in Boston, Monday, April 15, 2013. Two explosions shattered the euphoria of the Boston Marathon finish line on Monday, sending authorities out on the course to carry off the injured while the stragglers were rerouted away from the smoking site of the blasts. Credit: AP

Witnesses of Monday’s Boston Marathon carnage reported seeing many serious leg injuries, including legs being blown off.

“These runners just finished and they don’t have legs now,” Rhode Island state trooper Roupen Bastajian told the New York Times. The former Marine said he personally tied half a dozen tourniquets on victims. “So many of them. There are so many people without legs. It’s all blood. There’s blood everywhere. You got bones, fragments,” he added.

That fate tragically struck one family twice on Monday. Liz Norden, a mother of five, says that two of her sons lost a leg in one of the blasts.

She describes the unfolding of Monday’s event to the Boston Globe, which began with a call on her cellphone:

“Ma, I’m hurt real bad,” said her 31-year-old son. He was in an ambulance, he told her, being rushed to Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.

It was her second boy, who had gone with his older brother to watch a friend run in the Boston Marathon.

On the phone, her son said his legs were badly burned in an explosion. His brother had been next to him, but he didn’t know where he was.

Within the next two hours, amid frantic phone calls and a panicked drive into Boston, Norden pieced together the horrific truth that will forever change her two sons’ lives — and her own. Each of the brothers lost a leg, from the knee down. One was taken to Beth Israel Deaconess, while the other was at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. ‘I’d never imagined in my wildest dreams this would ever happen.’

Reporter Patricia Wen took note that the mother, sitting in the waiting area of one of the hospitals, was wearing mismatched socks, an indication of the rush in which she left the house.

She said, “I feel sick…I think I could pass out.”

Norden, who had not yet seen her sons when the report was filed, said she didn’t want to disclose the names of the 31 and 33-year-olds without their consent.

Both are high school graduates and avid fishermen who were recently laid off from their jobs as roofers, according to the Boston paper.

Their friend, Mike Jefferson, whom they had come to watch run in the marathon was also at the hospital waiting to see them and hear an update on their condition.

He told the Globe that he was about a quarter of a mile from the finish line when the explosion that injured his friends occurred.

The girlfriend of one of the brothers was also injured, suffering serious burns, according to the paper.

Watching the Evil

Written by Fox News |

BOSTON BOMBING: All-Out Effort To Find Out Who Did It — and Why

FBI says there is 'a lot of work to do' as authorities comb through evidence and pursue new leads to find who is responsible for deadly twin bombings near Boston Marathon finish line, as a senior White House official tells Fox News the blasts are believed to be an act of terrorism. The blasts left at least 3 dead and at least 144 injured.